Russia’s opinion on ‘Trump Bridge’ is unequivocally negative – Anatoly Matviychuk

Speaking with Alpha News, military expert Anatoly Matviychuk commented on the statement by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding the framework for the implementation of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project and how Russia might perceive it.

“Russia’s opinion on the ‘Trump Bridge’ is unequivocally negative. Pashinyan visited Moscow twice. He met with Vladimir Putin, where the issue was discussed, and Putin told him that the Syunik or Zangezur passage must become a passage for peace and a demilitarized passage if they want the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides to coexist peacefully within it. In other words, he stated that neither the Turks, nor the Americans, nor Azerbaijan should militarize this passage,” Matviychuk said.

Addressing the meeting between the Armenian and US Foreign Ministries in Washington, the expert emphasized that the US presence in the region is unacceptable, as it lies outside America’s traditional zones of influence—zones to which Syunik has never belonged.

“Rubio and Mirzoyan met, and Rubio mentioned the need for a private military company to provide security for the ‘Trump Bridge.’ What is a private military company? It is a military presence for the United States in a region that has never belonged to them and has never been a source of their national interests. Today, Trump is declaring that there should be no Russian or Chinese troops in the Western Hemisphere, yet they themselves are deploying their paramilitary forces to our hemisphere. That’s one thing. Secondly, the program Aliyev is currently promoting states that this corridor will be entirely pro-Azerbaijani, pro-Turkish, and will serve as a link between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. Essentially, this will be a corridor that completely cuts off part of Armenia from the rest of the country and annexes it to Azerbaijan,” Matviychuk said.

The political scientist noted that, initially, Russia will resort to diplomatic leverage against the United States in the region, and if these prove ineffective, he did not rule out the possibility of a military solution to the misunderstanding between the parties.