Russian troops and border guards stationed in Armenia are “the only real guarantee” of the country’s sovereignty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
“Claims that their withdrawal will somehow strengthen the military potential of the republic are dangerous demagogy,” the TASS news agency quoted an unnamed representative of the ministry as saying. “While forcing [Armenia] to revise the existing security system already today, the West does not offer anything concrete in return.”
The official reacted to a report released on Wednesday by the Friends of Armenia Network, a group of current and former European policy-makers set up last September by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The report argues against Russia’s continued military presence in Armenia. In particular, it says that the Russian border guards mostly deployed along the South Caucasus nation’s borders with Turkey and Iran are a “major vulnerability for Armenia and a limitation on its sovereignty.”
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The report also says Armenia should eventually leave the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and apply for European Union membership despite being heavily dependent on Russia for trade and energy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry official said this would have disastrous consequences for the Armenian economy. The official questioned the EU’s readiness to fully open its markets to Armenian goods.
Russia accounted last year for over 35 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade, compared with the EU’s 13 percent share. The Russian market absorbed 40 percent of Armenian exports worth $8.4 billion.
Rasmussen’s team made its policy recommendation amid a continuing worsening of Yerevan’s relations with Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government is precipitating their “collapse.” Lavrov decried the Armenian leaders’ “defamation” of Russian soldiers and border guards in Armenia.
Yerevan did not officially react to Lavrov’s remarks. An Armenian pro-government lawmaker, Arsen Torosian, blamed Moscow for the mounting tensions between the two longtime allies.
“If our [Russian] partners think that they will manage to change the Armenian people’s opinion about what they have seen, they are badly mistaken,” Torosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia’s two main opposition groups are seriously concerned about the country’s ongoing reorientation towards the West. They say that the Western powers will not offer the country security guarantees or provide it with significant military aid.
