YEREVAN: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that Russia had failed to deliver weapons Yerevan had already paid for and accused Russia’s media of destabilising his country’s political situation.

The remarks highligh­ted Armenia’s growing rift with its powerful ally after Rus­sian peacekeepers failed to prevent Azerbai­jan’s offensive to retake its Armenian-controlled separatistenclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“There is a problem related to the delivery of (Russian) weaponry and equipment for which we have already paid,” Pashinyan said in televised remarks.

“Discussions are currently underway on the mechanisms to resolve this problem.” “We know that the Russian Federa­tion itself needs weapons,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

He also said there were “certain problems” with respecting a bilateral agreement “stipulating that no efforts should be made to interfere in internal affairs or destabilise the domestic political situation in the country” by the two countries’ broadcast media.

Pashinyan said Yerevan had invited Moscow to hold consultations “so that we can resolve this issue in a friendly and normal atmosphere”.

CSTO ‘provides nothing’

Armenia is part of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisa­tion (CSTO) which obliges Russia to defend Armenia in the event of a foreign invasion.

“The actions of the CSTO do not align with the interests of Armenia,” Pashinyan said. He added that Armenians were “questioning why we remain in an organisation that provides nothing and… on the contrary, creates additional problems for our security”.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2023