For almost three centuries already the Armenian political science has been clarifying the Russian national interests to Russians, Vahan Hovhannisyan, MP, member of ARFD Bureau, told ArmInfo's correspondent in the lobby of the recent International Conference "The CSTO and the Modern Security Challenges". The MP thinks that it's time to stop doing that and to focus on elaboration of national priorities on the basis of our own interests and "to pursue these interests in any situation, to insist on them and not to try to naively correct the foreign political activity of Europeans, Russians or Americans, because Armenia's significance in the international arena is not big enough for the powers to give ear to Armenia".
Hovhannisyan thinks that Russia is a huge country with an imperial past, a federal system and a big problematic economy. Many topical regional issues of great importance to Armenia are non-essential and secondary for Russia. "It is a simple lack of foresight not to see the direct bridge between the ongoing developments in the Greater Middle East and the danger nestled in Russia itself. To all appearances, the political science of Russia sees no correlation between the regional challenges and the disintegration processes inside the country, whereas these processes are clearly visible through the growth of nationalistic separatist movements and especially the movements supported by the terrorist groups", he stressed.
In the meantime, the MP thinks that "its' high time Armenia minded its own business". "Over the two decades of independence, our country's significance in the international arena has not only failed to rise but also dropped, unfortunately. We failed to use the period when we were of more significance, especially after the Karabakh war and the ceasefire. These twenty years were absolutely empty for us. Then the situation started deteriorating for both internal and external reasons, but we did not prepare the country for that and today we reap the bitter fruits", said Hovhannisyan. Nevertheless, he thinks that the situation is not hopeless yet. "There is a way out of the bad situation, but there may be losses and victims. So, everything should be done to prevent fatalities and loss of statehood and the whole population. Unfortunately, the concept of how to do that is not clear yet and the Armenian Government does not yet realize this danger", said Hovhannisyan.
To recall, when commenting on the ongoing integration processes during the Nov 19 CSTO conference in Yerevan, ARFD Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisyan said that if Armenia and Russia are allies, there should be no pressure. He recalled that Russia and later the Soviet Union had both allies and rivals in the West. Today the situation is quite the opposite. "They try to make us understand that Armenia should make a civilized choice between Russia and Europe. When did Russia stop being Europe?" the parliamentarian said.