Armenia has essentially frozen its membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a televised interview publicized on Friday.
“In our view, the CSTO has not fulfilled — in 2021 and 2022 in particular — its security obligations to Armenia, and we could not have let that go without consequences,” Pashinyan told the France 24 TV channel. “As a consequence, we have, in effect, frozen our participation in the CSTO. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Armenia officially requested military intervention from Russia and other CSTO allies after Azerbaijan’s offensive military operations launched along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September 2022. It has since repeatedly accused them of ignoring the request in breach of the CSTO’s statutes and declared mission. It has declined CSTO offers to provide “military-technical assistance” to Yerevan and deploy a monitoring mission to the border.
Last year, Pashinyan’s government not only shunned various-level CSTO meetings but also cancelled a CSTO exercise in Armenia, refused to name an Armenian deputy head of the organization and recalled the Armenian representative to its Moscow headquarters.
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Moscow reacted cautiously to Pashinyan’s latest remarks, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that it expects Yerevan to clarify them. Peskov also noted that the Armenian side has not notified the CSTO about the suspensions of its membership in the organization.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in December that Armenia is not planning to leave the CSTO and attributed Yerevan’s boycott of the organization to internal “processes” taking place in the country. By contrast, the Russian Foreign Ministry earlier accused Pashinyan of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations.
Pashinyan, who was apparently interviewed by the French broadcaster during a visit to Paris on Wednesday, also claimed that in the wake of Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh last September “Russia’s most high-ranking representatives” encouraged Armenians to take to the streets and topple him. Moscow did not immediately respond to the claim.
Pashinyan also hit out at out Russia when he visited Germany at the weekend to attend an annual security conference in Munich. He met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British intelligence chief Richard Moore on the sidelines of the forum.
The Armenian premier’s latest criticism of Russia highlights a deepening rift between the two longtime allies. He has so far stopped short of announcing plans to pull Armenia out of the CSTO and demand the withdrawal Russian troops from the country.
Pashinyan and his political allies say that they are “diversifying” Armenia’s foreign and security policy due to the lack of Russian support. Their political opponents regard the policy change as reckless, arguing that the West is not ready to give Yerevan any security guarantees or provide it with significant military aid.
