Armenia will not host Russian-led military exercises this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday, signaling growing frustration with Moscow.
Pashinyan’s announcement came after the leader of the former Soviet republic criticized Moscow and the work of Russian peacekeepers in the South Caucasus, which has been wracked by decades of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Speaking to reporters, Pashinyan said there is no reason for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to conduct military exercises in Armenia this year.
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“This exercise will not take place,” he told reporters.
“Armenia does not believe it should conduct CSTO exercises in the republic this year.”
Analysts say Russia – distracted by the ongoing war in Ukraine – is losing influence in the South Caucasus after decades of playing power broker.
Pashinyan noted the organization’s refusal to punish Azerbaijan, which is fighting a six-week war with Armenia for control of the Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.
The conflict claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Yerevan hand over territory it had controlled for decades and Moscow send peacekeepers to Karabakh.
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Turkey, Azerbaijan’s main arms supplier, supports Baku in the conflict.
Despite the end of the war, tension on the border remained.
In May 2021, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of violating its territorial integrity and moving troops into its territory.
– ‘Close cousins’-
Pashinyan said Russia, which Armenia considers its “number one ally”, had let his country down at the time.
“Armenia expects concrete actions from its Russian and other partners in the field of security,” Pashinyan said Tuesday, referring to the 2021 attack.
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“This issue is important from the point of view of building further relations,” he said.
Headquartered in Moscow, the CSTO brings together Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The security alliance said on Tuesday it was looking for another location for the exercise.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Pashinyan’s announcement a “rather recent statement.”
“In any case, Armenia is a very close ally,” he said.
“We will continue the dialogue. Including in the problems that are now very complicated.
Analysts have pointed to Russia’s unwillingness to butt heads with Turkey and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus.
Pashinyan has also repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect ethnic Armenians in Karabakh and called for multinational peacekeeping forces to enter.
Yerevan said that Azerbaijan since mid-December has blocked the main road connecting Armenia with Karabakh, causing shortages of food, medicine and fuel. To address food shortages, local authorities say they plan to introduce ration stamps.
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As part of the 2020 ceasefire, Russian peacekeepers are responsible for maintaining security through the link, called the Lachin corridor.
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