Russian “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” has referred to the military-technological cooperation between Armenia and Russia in one of its articles, indicating that buying weapons on credit is a simple matter that almost all countries do collaborate in that field.
“The credit-taker, the country buying the weapons, is viewed as a very close partner and friend, if not an ally. This is how Armenia had been viewed by Russia for many years,” emphasizes the newspaper.
“Yerevan receives economic, military (Russian military station encompassed) and political support from Moscow. Kremlin’s decision was definite also in Nagorno-Karabakh issue. For that very reason the fact that Russia agreed on giving $200 million credit to Armenia for buying weapons in 2015 was not a surprise. The deliveries were made previous month. Armenia received “Smerch”, “Igla-S”, “Avtobaza-M” ELINT systems (electronic intelligence systems), “TOS-1A” heavy flamethrower system, “Tigr” all-terrain infantry mobility vehicles, “RPG” grenade launcher and etc. The Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, Davit Tonoyan highlighted that the weaponry is modern, modernized and they did not exist even in Russian arsenal. Military-technological balance has been violated recently in Transcaucasia because of Azerbaijan’s military potential. The latter publicly threatens with Nagorno-Karabakh conflict escalation. The weaponry delivered to the Republic of Armenia by Russia will help stop the conflict escalation bringing the military advantage of one of the sides to balance. However, not all are in favor of the military and technological partnership between Yerevan and Moscow. The US National Intelligence report reads that the lack of the wish of the sides to go for compromises, sustainable militarization of Azerbaijan and buying new Russian weapons by the Republic of Armenia in 2018 can lead to large-scale military actions. Perhaps the visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, to Brussels and his meetings in the framework of NATO Summit are conditioned by that. He announced that the Republic of Armenia is CSTO member and that he saw Armenia in that very organization’s membership. The Prime Minister considers Russia as a close ally, but he hopes to develop the relations with NATO, EU, and the US as well. The change of the position of Yerevan, however, was noticed by a lot of experts. How not to notice CSTO Secretary General, Yuri Khachaturov’s detention? Of course, the court decided to release him on bail, but the accusation was not erased. What is the outcome? On one hand, you speak about being loyal to CSTO, on the other hand, you send CSTO Secretary-General to jail? They could have discussed the issue with other CSTO member states and ceased Khachaturov’s liabilities in that office first, and then detained him, couldn’t they? Such actions hit CSTO with such strength that is equal to a direct aggression against the organization, isn’t it? With all of this, while praising the Russian weapons, the Defense Minister of the Republic of Armenia mentions on his part, “although Armenian-Russian friendly relations are stipulated upon many agreements, it is not excluded that some provisions in those agreements may be revised”. And maybe it is better to choose an easier option? For example, not to sell modern weapons on credit (as the historical past shows, the credit is not paid off for economic reasons), but to sell it out? Everything will be fair then: without offense,” reads the article.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
