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.