Russia has accused the United States of pushing Armenia to commit “national suicide” by “stimulating the activity of pro-Western structures” in the country and “trying to accelerate its adoption of a pro-Western foreign policy.”
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on Thursday that, in doing so, Washington is “using methods tested in Ukraine and Moldova.”
“There is a task to give a sustainable anti-Russian direction to civil society and political processes in Armenia. To this end, Washington intends to carry out a long-term information and propaganda campaign that, among other things, is aimed at discrediting Yerevan’s prospects for cooperation with Russia, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization), and spreading reports about ‘pressure’ on Armenian migrant workers in Russia,” the SVR claimed, the Tass news agency reported.
Russia National Security chief Sergei Shoigu, who until recently was the country’s defense minister, said the West is preventing the stabilization of the situation in the South Caucasus.
“As for regional security in the South Caucasus, the situation remains difficult, but there are prerequisites for improvement. It is hindered by foreign players—first of all, the countries of the West—who act with inappropriate goals, to put it mildly,” Shoigu told a summit of CIS national security chief on Thursday in Moscow.
He added that what has been said proves the theory that regional problems need regional solutions.
To that end, Russia expects that a regional platform known as the “3+3” will intensify its efforts following meeting in Istanbul last month of the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Georgia has also been invited to take part in the platform, but official Tbilisi has refused.
“In the South Caucasus, we [i.e. Russia] have done and continue to do everything possible to strengthen the 3+3 regional consultative platform. We expect that after the ministerial meeting [held in Turkey in October], the work of this mechanism will be intensified,” Shoigu said.
Following the meeting in Istanbul, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed that the peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan take place on the so-called “3+3 platform” umbrella. Yerevan swiftly rejected the proposal with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan saying that while Yerevan will continue its participation, such platforms were not conceived to resolve conflicts between two countries.
