“Russia will soon be almost a country like North Korea. Of course, there will be no pure North Korea. In any case, Russia is a superpower, it will have some allies and friends with whom it will have relations, but by and large Russia will be pushed out of all platforms by the West,” political scientist Armen Vardanyan said in response to Aravot’s question about the possible consequences of Russia’s removal from the Council of Europe, particularly for Armenia’s foreign policy.
According to Armen Vardanyan, it is obvious that the West has started the process of pushing Russia into a corner. He continued, “Russia is being pushed out of all possible places. They will be expelled from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, that is, Russia is being isolated politically, economically, and psychologically. It will not have an impact on Armenia. For example, the Russian delegates to the PACE have not even voted for Armenia on many issues of importance to Armenia in recent years. In general, they either abstained or voted against us. For example, the Russian side voted against the return of Armenian prisoners of war to Armenia last year. People could choose not to vote, be neutral, or abstain, but they did not. They voted against us. So, removing Russia from PACE will not have any negative impact on Armenia. This will lead to Russia moving more towards totalitarianism.”
According to Armen Vardanyan, Russia is already far from democracy, but in any case, Russia’s membership in the PACE and a number of other international structures is a restraining factor. “In many cases, Russian citizens, if they had a problem in the domestic courts, applied to the European Court of Human Rights. Now they cannot. And this means letting go of Russia’s hands. Everything in the country will be totally controlled. There will be human rights violations, a serious blow to democracy. This decision will have such serious consequences for Russia.”
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In response to our question of whether the isolation of Russia as a strategic partner of Armenia will not have a negative impact on Armenia, Armen Vardanyan answered, “It will not have a particularly negative impact. Russia was already an undemocratic country between authoritarianism and totalitarianism, it did not affect Armenia-Russia relations. Of course, it is in Armenia’s interests for Russia to be a democracy. It would be good for us to replace the Putin regime with a more democratic one. But if the West fails to change that regime, then it does not matter to us whether Russia is in the PACE or is withdrawn from European structures or not. By and large, it is Russia, the same dictatorial regime with its imperial ambitions. They are the same Russian authorities, which, by and large, does not change much for Armenia. The situation for Armenia would change if the regime in Russia changed.”
In Armen Vardanyan’s opinion, Russia’s withdrawal from European structures will even be in favor of Armenia in some sense. “We will no longer have a headache in the resolutions related to Russia in that structure. But, of course, it is bad that by completely withdrawing Russia from those structures, Russia becomes more independent, with the ensuing consequences. When a bear is pushed into a corner, it becomes more unpredictable. It is possible that in some way it will lead to more unpredictable consequences.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
