An upcoming summit of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been cancelled at Armenia’s request, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, contradicting a statement made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The leaders of Russia, Armenia and four other ex-Soviet states making up the military alliance were due to meet in Saint Petersburg on Thursday in another attempt to appoint a new CSTO secretary general.
The previous CSTO head, Yuri Khachaturov of Armenia, was dismissed last month after being charged by Armenian law-enforcement authorities in connection with a 2008 crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan.
Khachaturov’s three-year tenure was due to expire in 2020. The Armenian government attempted to install another Armenian secretary general who would serve until 2020.
The presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan objected to that at a November 8 summit held in the Kazakh capital Astana. They demanded that a representative of Belarus be named as new head of the CSTO.
The CSTO leaders said they will again try to reach consensus on the issue when they meet in Saint Petersburg.
Pashinian said on Sunday that in a recent phone call Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to postpone the summit because of lingering differences between Russia’s ex-Soviet allies. “I agreed to that because I think it’s better to solve that issue through working procedures,” the Armenian prime minister told reporters.
A senior aide to Putin said on Tuesday, however, that it was Yerevan that initiated the summit’s cancelation because of parliamentary elections that will be held in Armenia on Sunday.
Russian news agencies quoted the official, Yury Ushakov, as saying: “At their last meeting in Astana the [CSTO] leaders agreed on that [Saint Petersburg summit] but then decided not to hold the CSTO session [on December 6] given, in particular, a request from the Armenian side which cited the pre-election campaign.”
Tajikistan - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talk during a CIS summit in Dushanbe, Septmeber 28, 2018.
This means, Ushakov went on, that the CSTO’s acting secretary general, Russia’s Valery Semerikov, will continue to perform his duties for the time being.
Reacting to Ushakov’s remarks, Pashinian’s spokesman Arman Yeghoyan insisted that the Armenian side never proposed the summit cancellation. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Yeghoyan reaffirmed Pashinian’s December 2 statement on the issue.
Meanwhile, Pashinian’s most vocal election challenger, the Republican Party (HHK) of former President Serzh Sarkisian, seized upon the Kremlin’s claims to attack the premier.
“Yet another lie by Nikol Pashinian has been quickly exposed,” the HHK’s deputy chairman, Armen Ashotian, wrote on Facebook. He accused the premier of sacrificing “Armenia’s dignity and state interests.”
HHK representatives have strongly criticized Pashinian’s handling of the CSTO issue during the parliamentary race. They claim that Armenia has lost the hard-won leadership position within the CSTO because of what they call reckless and politically motivated charges brought against Khachaturov.
Pashinian has brushed aside the criticism. He has also downplayed the significance of the CSTO post, saying that it has given Armenia few tangible benefits.
Moscow reacted angrily when the Armenian authorities charged Khachaturov as well as former President Robert Kocharian in July. A Kremlin official said the criminal case against the then CSTO secretary general dealt a “colossal blow to the image of the whole organization.”