Pashinyan: CSTO mechanisms should have worked in 2022

ArmInfo.Armenia recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but we did so only after the Russian Federation's top leadership publicly stated this twice, and you remember, we've spoken about this repeatedly. We've never hidden our problems with the CSTO either, because we had a specific situation in 2022, and in my opinion, the CSTO mechanisms should have worked, but they didn't.  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed  this viewpoint at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

This, according to Pashinyan, of course, led to the current situation  in our relations with the CSTO. "We are not currently participating  in the CSTO's work for a simple reason: we are still unable to  explain to our people, our citizens, why the CSTO has not responded  and has not responded despite the obligations it has under the  Collective Security Treaty."

Regarding domestic political processes, Pashinyan emphasized that  Armenia is a democratic country, and "we essentially always have  political processes, and this has become a normal thing for us. And  we actually have elections twice a year, municipal elections, and  they are also highly politicized, because based on the results of our  political reforms, people vote for or against political parties. I  mean, many of our citizens- not very many, but there are citizens-who  think there is too much democracy in Armenia, but this is a matter of  principle for us. Our social media, for example, is 100% free, there  are no restrictions whatsoever, and many citizens think that this is  too much." In the general context, frankly speaking, we don't have  any remote participants in the political process. I'd like to point  out that, for example, we have parliamentary elections coming  up-elections for members of parliament, and based on these elections,  and this is de facto, a prime ministerial election. I'd like to point  out that only citizens who hold Armenian passports can participate in  these elections," the prime minister said.

He clarified that, according to the Armenian constitution, people  with Russian passports cannot run for parliament or prime minister,  "so there are no restrictions here." "And I'm 100 percent certain  that, you know, our relations with the Russian Federation and our  personal relations have been through many trials in recent years. I  am very pleased and would like to once again  express my gratitude  for the trusting atmosphere that you, first and foremost, created. If  you hadn't wanted us to have such an open, trusting relationship, I  think I obviously wouldn't have been able to do this," Pashinyan  said.

The Armenian Prime Minister thanked the Russian President and  expressed confidence that, following the upcoming elections,  democracy and people's power in Armenia will be further strengthened,  and that relations between Armenia and Russia will also continue to  develop dynamically.