Armenia has officially told Russia to withdraw its border guards from Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport, a senior Armenian official said on Wednesday.
The border guards have for decades been stationed there as well as along Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran in accordance with Yerevan’s military and political alliance with Moscow. Armenian media outlets have reported in recent weeks that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government now wants them to leave Zvartnots amid a deepening rift between the two longtime allies.
“At the moment, Armenia has the capacity to fully carry out controls at the airport,” Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of the country’s Security Council, told reporters. “Armenia has informed the Russian Federation about its clear position in an official letter.”
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Moscow has received no such notifications yet. He expressed confidence that the two sides will eventually overcome their current discord.
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Some observers view the Armenian government’s move to force the Russians out of the Yerevan airport as a possible prelude for its demand for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the country. Pashinyan and his political allies have indicated no such plans yet.
Pashinyan announced last month an effective suspension of Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). He subsequently did not rule out Yerevan’s formal exit from the CSTO, saying that the military alliance is becoming a security threat to his country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected at the weekend his claims that the CSTO and Russia in particularly have not honored their security commitments to Armenia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday that Moscow has offered the Armenian side to hold “interagency consultations” and “try to dispel their concerns” regarding the CSTO. “They have not responded to this initiative so far,” she said.
Zakharova also echoed Lavrov’s warnings about what Moscow calls highly negative consequences of Armenia’s ongoing reorientation towards the West. The South Caucasus country, she said, risks becoming another “duped victim of the West” and meeting the fate of Ukraine.
“I would not like this to happen to Armenia, which has gone through a very difficult historical path, including genocide, defense of sovereignty, struggle for culture, serious territorial disputes, conflicts,” added Zakharova.