Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which reprimanded Yerevan for what it called recent “unfriendly steps” by Yerevan.
The ambassador was also given a “protest notes” outlining grievances from Moscow, including a remarks by Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, who told reporters that it was beneath him to “respond to some female secretary,” referring to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. Moscow was also angry the Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Ukraine this week and presented “humanitarian assistance to the Nazi Kyiv regime.”
“We noted the appearance of certain doubts in the official circles and political elite of the Republic of Armenia regarding the expediency of allied relations within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and with Russia on a bilateral basis, as well as regarding the feasibility of the complex of tripartite agreements between Moscow, Yerevan and Baku reached in 2020-2022 about ways of normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement regarding the ambassadorial summons.
Russia also cited a recent Armenian government decision to ask parliament to ratify the International Criminal Court treaty, as well as the announcement this week that Armenia will host joint military exercises with the United States.
“At the same time, Moscow firmly believes that Russia and Armenia remain allies, and all agreements on the development and strengthening of partnership relations will be fully implemented for the benefit of the peoples of our two countries. This, among other things, concerns the organization of exercises within the CSTO and in the future sending to the Republic of Armenian an observation mission of the Organization in order to facilitate the settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Russian side will continue to apply all necessary efforts for these purposes,” the Russian foreign ministry added in its statement.
