“In fact, Pashinyan said in his own words that the proposal of the CSTO to deploy a monitoring mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is unrealistic,” said Kirill Krivosheev, a Carnegie Center expert and Kommersant correspondent, during a video discussion by the Article 3 Club.
The acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced during the session of government, “At the same time, I think that one of the possible solutions to find out the truth of our mutual accusations from Azerbaijan is the deployment of a CSTO monitoring mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which is envisaged by the CSTO legal regulations. In case carrying out such a mission within the CSTO is not possible, there may be other internationally acceptable formats for us, including the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.”
According to him, the idea of deploying Russian peacekeepers along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is useful. It is a two-way scale that usually operates in the post-Soviet space. According to him, in this issue, however, Baku must give its consent. He explained, “Moscow will have to listen to Azerbaijan’s opinion on this issue, which, in all probability, will not be so positive. The issue of establishing full control of Russian peacekeepers on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border can be discussed, but with the decisive participation of Azerbaijan. Here, Azerbaijan will have its sharp and decisive word. According to Vladimir Putin, the more territory the Russian peacekeepers occupy, the better. But it is unlikely that Baku will be happy about it, and Moscow will have to listen to Baku’s opinion.”
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Referring to the CSTO as a structure, he said, “The CSTO, let’s be honest, is an artificial system. Moscow needs it, and Moscow created it to counterbalance NATO. The CSTO is a group of people, a platform where people gather, an old Soviet’s gauge, and they talk about the challenges that come from the West. The CSTO is incapable of real, decisive action, so they prefer to argue around the table, sit around, and think about how the West is setting up biolaboratories where viruses are being created to eliminate all Orthodox people. During crises, the CSTO finds an excuse not to play a decisive role.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
