Russia has never been  initiator of cooling of Russian-Armenian  relations - Sergey Lavrov

ArmInfo.Russia has never been the initiator of the cooling of Russian-Armenian relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Thursday at a press conference on the results of the activities of the Russian Foreign Ministry in 2023 in response to a request to assess the current level of relations between Yerevan and Moscow.

At the same time, he noted that Russia remembers when many of the  current officials of Armenia, when they were still in the opposition,  during various political campaigns, called for leaving the CSTO and  EAEU during various political campaigns. "And when Prime Minister  Pashinyan came to power, we did not have even the slightest impulse  to somehow distance ourselves from Yerevan. Everything developed the  same as under his predecessors in the economy, in energy, in the  social sector and in military-political affairs. But what you see now  is: For example, the document on sending the Organization's mission  to the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed upon at the CSTO  summit in Yerevan in 2022. The ministers agreed, and at the level of  top officials Pashinyan said that Armenia could not sign now, and  almost simultaneously the EU mission was deployed there. Well, this  is Armenia's choice," the Russian minister noted.

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the EU mission,  which began to take an active interest in the work of Russian border  guards on the territory of Armenia, instead of engaging in  confidence- building measures, tried to constantly "sniff out what,  where and how it goes, what Russia is doing." 

The Russian Foreign Minister added that Moscow has repeatedly raised  this issue at meetings with Armenian partners,  just as it wanted to  understand why Yerevan refuses to accept the CSTO mission in parallel  with the EU mission.

"The answer was that the CSTO disappointed Armenia because it did not  condemn Azerbaijan. Yes, we know this answer. But if we go along the  entire path of this conflict, then both the Armenian and Azerbaijani  sides will accumulate acts there, and this can go so far . Therefore,  one can either look for someone to blame and refuse the possibility  of getting real help in strengthening the borders, or work with  Western partners. The CSTO has disappointed, Russia has disappointed,  but the West has not. This is the choice of the Armenian leadership,"  he noted.

The diplomat also recalled that a number of Russian citizens were  declared persona non grata in Armenia for their assessments of the  current situation in relations between the two countries, which does  not fit into the allied nature of relations between Yerevan and Baku.  He also recalled the problems that arose in relations between the two  countries when Yerevan decided to sign the Rome Statute of the ICC.   Lavrov also stated that Yerevan does not object to the obvious desire  of the West to oust Russia from the South Caucasus.

The Russian Foreign Minister also referred to the regional 3+3  mechanism, expressing his opinion that this format has prospects in  the future, as it does not depend on any global situation and is free  from the geopolitical game of preserving hegemony, which Washington  is developing together with colleagues from Brussels. 

"I repeat once again, we have very 'warm' relations with the Armenian  people. We are confident that history will arrange everything back to  order, but we will not solve all the problems alone," Russia's chief  diplomat summed up.