Armenia begins to reduce cooperation with Russia: Zakharova calls Pashinyan’s statements about CSTO disinformation

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YEREVAN, September 20/ARKA/. Armenia has begun to reduce political dialogue and inter-agency cooperation with Russia, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.br/pp

It seems as if deliberate disinformation is being spread by certain political forces in Armenia claiming that the CSTO allegedly did not protect Armenia and so on. This is all untrue, because we have repeatedly spoken in detail about the efforts of the CSTO and Russia, shared our assessments of the decisions made by the Armenian authorities. We believe that the claims periodically heard from Yerevan are absurd and do not correspond to the facts, said Zakharova./pp

She noted that under these pretexts, Armenia began to reduce political dialogue and inter-agency cooperation with Russia./pp

They are constantly talking about freezing participation in the CSTO, and in contrast, they have begun to move closer to the West at an accelerated pace. There is a certain manipulation in this. Economic indicators show one thing: there is an interest among people, companies and businesses in getting closer and strengthening ties (with Russia), but for some reason the political leadership is acting in the opposite way. This could end badly, said the diplomat./pp

She also noted that history knows many examples of how such manipulations were used to cover up one’s own mistakes./pp

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking at the Second World Armenian Summit on Wednesday, said that the CSTO is not fulfilling its defense obligations to Armenia and is creating threats to its security, existence, sovereignty and statehood./pp

In February 2024, Armenia announced the freezing of its membership in the CSTO, and later also refused to pay membership fees to the organization. -0-/p