Dmitry Peskov comments on Armenia-US military exercise

Russia will try to comprehend in a partnership dialogue with Armenia why Yerevan needs joint military exercises with the United States, and not with the CSTO, press secretary for Russian president Dmitry Peskov told reporters at the Eastern Economic Forum.

“As Armenia has not expressed a desire to conduct exercises with the CSTO and now conducts exercises with the Americans – we have decided to carry out a deep analysis to figure out why Armenia makes such decisions, what goals it pursues,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin spokesperson stressed that Moscow “will try to comprehend this.”
“But we will do this in a close partnership dialogue with the Armenian side,” he said.

He noted that Moscow had not received any official messages on Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO.

“We have seen a lot of discussions on this topic, including on the part of pro-Western analysts in Armenia. But we have not received any official signals in this regard,” Peskov said.

According to the Kremlin representative, Russia is not afraid of losing an ally in Armenia, Moscow and Yerevan remain close.

“We were, we are and, I am sure, we will be very close allies and partners with Armenia,” he stressed.