The Russian Foreign Ministry: Yerevan is once again attempting to shift responsibility for its decisions to CSTO countries.

ArmInfo. Yerevan is once again attempting to shift responsibility for its decisions to member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin stated this in an interview with TASS.

He noted that, despite Armenia's freezing of its participation in the CSTO and non-payment of dues, the country remains a full member of the organization.

"We are not leaving Yerevan out of our cooperation, preserving the opportunity for our partners to join all decisions developed within the organization, which would ultimately fully meet their interests. Unfortunately, we are not seeing any reciprocal movement from the Armenian side," Pankin emphasized. "Rather the opposite:" "There are once again obvious attempts to shift responsibility for decisions to others."

In this regard, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister recalled that "in accordance with the provisions of the CSTO Charter, a member state may be deprived of voting rights until the accumulated arrears in contributions are paid in full."

Commenting on expectations for the CSTO summit scheduled for November 11 in Moscow, he noted that the upcoming session of the organization's Collective Security Council "will be the culmination of Russia's chairmanship of the association."

"A comprehensive package of documents aimed at further comprehensive strengthening of the association's potential as one of the key mechanisms for maintaining regional stability is planned to be submitted to the heads of our states for approval," Pankin specified.

Furthermore, according to him, the session participants also plan to "synchronize their watches on current issues on the international and regional agendas and determine the main directions for further "Development of allied cooperation within the CSTO."

As a reminder, Armenia has been boycotting CSTO events since the end of 2022. In February 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia had effectively frozen its participation in the CSTO, as the organization had failed to fulfill its obligations to Armenia, which could not go without consequences. And on September 18, 2024, at the Second World Armenian Summit, Pashinyan stated that the CSTO poses threats to Armenia's security, its continued existence, sovereignty, and statehood.