Armenia remains a full member of CSTO and has not left it: Zakharova

ArmInfo. Armenia remains a full member of the CSTO, retaining all corresponding rights and obligations. There are absolutely no obstacles to the resumption of active, normal, and full-fledged work by partners in the organization, as stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson  Maria Zakharova during a briefing on December 11.

"We have witness and continue to witness a peculiar verbal balancing  act. The CSTO has withdrawn from Armenia, then Armenia is about to  withdraw, or has actually done so, or has somehow withdrawn from the  CSTO, something the Armenian leadership and certain representatives  of this country are saying. I am telling the truth. Armenia remains a  full member. It has not withdrawn from the CSTO.  "As for some kind  of freeze on participation, I mean in the CSTO, that also falls into  the category of verbal balancing act.  Because such a form is simply  not provided for in the association's legal framework," she said.

According to Maria Zakharova, in accordance with the CSTO Charter,  any member state has the right to withdraw from the organization in  the prescribed manner. "If a state fails to fulfill its obligations  within the organization, specifically, if it is in arrears with the  CSTO budget for two years, it may be subject to a suspension of the  right of its citizens to nominate quota positions within the CSTO, as  well as deprivation of voting rights in the organization's bodies  until the arrears are fully repaid. In fact,  this is not an  invention of the CSTO. Similar approaches are in effect within the UN  system," the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry  concluded.