Russia’s foreign ministry on Friday warned that it could “end badly” for Armenia if Yerevan continues its “disinformation” about the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
“They [Armenia] are constantly talking about freezing participation in the CSTO, and, in contrast, they have begun to approach the West at an accelerated pace. There is a certain manipulativeness in this. Economic indicators speak of one thing: there is an interest by people, companies, and businesses in tightening and strengthening of [Armenia-Russia] ties, but the political elite [of Armenia], for some reason, is doing the opposite; this could end badly,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing on Friday.
“It seems that certain political forces in Armenia are intentionally disseminating disinformation that the CSTO did not protect Armenia. All this does not correspond to reality because we have repeatedly talked in detail about the CSTO and Russia’s efforts, we have shared our assessments regarding the decisions taken by Armenia’s authorities. We believe that the claims made regularly from Yerevan are absurd and do not correspond to the facts,” Zakharova explained.
She also complained about official Yerevan drastically reducing its political dialogue with Russia.
Zakharova also took aim at Armenian officials—mainly members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling party—who have capitalized on the indictment on Wednesday of seven people, with Russian ties, who allegedly plotted a coup in Armenia.
“The attempts of a number of Armenia’s officials to spin a report by the Investigative Committee of Armenia on preventing a coup attempt, to find some Russian trace in it, are absurd and do not warrant a response. This is a fake [campaign] launched by officials,” Zakharova said.
“It is unfortunate that some circles in Armenia are adopting the plundered tactics of Western countries, which in recent decades have resorted to promoting Russophobic sentiments by way of looking for an imaginary Russian threat,” Zakharova added.
