“I already had to comment on the current situation regarding Armenia; it of course does not inspire optimism,” he told the Moscow daily Izvestia. “Frankly, the Armenian leadership, under far-fetched pretexts, distorting the history of the last three or three and a half years, is deliberately leading things to the collapse of relations with the Russian Federation.”
Lavrov decried the Armenian leaders’ “defamation” of Russian soldiers and border guards deployed in Armenia as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
He again insisted that the Russian-led military alliance did not refuse to defend Armenia and criticized Yerevan for rejecting the proposed deployment of CSTO monitors along the country’s border with Azerbaijan and opting for a similar mission by the European Union instead. It is now becoming a de facto NATO mission, having been joined by U.S., Canadian and Norwegian personnel, claimed Lavrov.
The Russian Foreign Ministry already accused Pashinian’s administration of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian ties last fall, reacting to its intensifying efforts to reorient Armenia towards the West. Lavrov warned early this month that Moscow will seriously “reconsider” those ties if Yerevan continues drifting away from the Russian orbit.
Pashinian and his entourage say they have to “diversify” Armenia’s traditional foreign policy because of what they call Russia’s failure to honor its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally.
Pashinian announced in late February the effective suspension of Armenia’s membership in the CSTO. He subsequently did not rule out the possibility of leaving the alliance altogether and applying for European Union membership.
