Armenian leadership deliberately leads Armenian-Russian relations to  collapse - Lavrov

ArmInfo.The situation created in Armenian-Russian relations does not inspire optimism due to the  position of the Armenian leadership, which deliberately destroys relations with Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on March 28 in an interview with Izvestia.

"I already had to comment on the current situation with Armenia; it,  of course, does not inspire optimism.  The Armenian leadership,  frankly speaking, under far-fetched pretexts, misrepresenting the  processes of the last three to three and a half years, is  deliberately leading to the collapse of relations with the Russian  Federation," he said.

According to Lavrov, this course of Yerevan is manifested in the  defamation of Russian servicemen who serve at the 102nd military base  in Gyumri, border guards, as well as the Collective Security Treaty  Organization (CSTO) as a whole.  The head of the Russian Foreign  Ministry noted that the official Yerevan does not mention that it was  the CSTO that has repeatedly defended the interests of Armenia in  difficult situations and in 2021 was ready to send its peacekeeping  mission to the country in order to reduce the tension in its  relations with Azerbaijan, the head of the Foreign Ministry noted.

He recalled that the mandate of this mission was fully agreed upon at  a ministerial meeting in Yerevan in the fall of 2021, after which  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the lack of  consensus and invited a similar EU mission to the country.

It was subsequently doubled, and now military personnel from Norway,  Canada and the United States are being sent there, turning the EU  mission into a NATO mission, Lavrov added.  "This whole story of the  last few years has been distorted by Mr. Pashinyan, his employees,  and the leadership of the Armenian parliament," summed up the head of  the Russian Foreign Ministry.