Pashinyan did not drag Russia away from the North-South project but left Armenia in a blockade

In order for Armenia to be able to implement the Crossroads of Peace project and become a large regional transport and logistics hub, Armenia had to be involved in the International North-South Transport Corridor project. There were problems with Armenia’s participation in this project even before 2018, as the construction of the Armenian section of the North-South project turned into a “bottomless corruption barrel” and often resembled sabotage.

The situation did not change after 2018, and by the year 2024, we can observe that the war of 2020, the surrender of Artsakh in 2022, and ethnic cleansing in Artsakh in 2023 were part of the plan to cut off Russia and China from the North-South project, as James O’Brien recently said.

The Armenian authorities (as well as Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008), implementing a political project directed against Russia, came up with an excuse and stated that the reason for all the troubles is that Russia is leaving the region.

But is Russia leaving?

Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said today that Russia and Iran will soon sign a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement. Moreover, he noted that Russian MIR payment cards will also start operating in Iran in the next six months.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that within the framework of the North-South project, an agreement was reached with Iranian partners on the completion of the missing section of the railway between the Iranian cities of Astara and Rasht with a length of 162 km. “The corridor includes three directions: the western one is along the western shore of the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, the eastern one is, respectively, along the eastern one, and the trans-Caspian one is through the Caspian Sea,” the Russian official said.

This, in turn, means that Pashinyan and “O’Brien & Co.” did not drag Russia away from the North-South project but only left Armenia in a blockade. If the project starts working by bypassing Armenia, it will once again confirm our thesis that Pashinyan’s “Crossroads of Peace” is actually Pashinyan’s “Dead End”.

Was it worth sacrificing the second Armenian statehood in Artsakh, endangering the existence of the Republic of Armenia, in order to push Russia out of the region? Not only did Russia not leave, but it also diversified its presence.

Think about it…