‘Armenia is revising bilateral relations with Russia’: political scientist on withdrawal of Russian border guards from Yerevan airport 

 
Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Denis Denisov commented on Armenia’s request to withdraw Russian border guards from Yerevan airport.

According to the expert, these are the consequences of dissatisfaction with Russia’s position in the conflict in the South Caucasus.

“All these decisions are being made in the context of general Armenian-Russian relations, which are currently characterized by a certain decline. The thing is that these are symbolic decisions rather than decisions that have such a strong impact on bilateral relations. Moreover, we remember that Russian border guards have been on the territory of Armenia at the invitation of the Armenian side for quite a long time, for more than thirty years. In this regard, if the guards on the border with Iran and Turkey are an important element of Armenia’s security, then the border control post at Zvartnots airport is rather a symbolic fact that has remained from those times.

Now the Armenian government is revising all elements of bilateral relations with Russia and is trying to remove those in which they are not very interested. By doing so, Armenia wants to demonstrate its position regarding bilateral relations. On top of that, these are the consequences of dissatisfaction with Russia’s position during the last few years in the conflict in the South Caucasus,” Denisov said.

According to the expert, Russia will simply respond with the statement from its foreign ministry, and, apparently, that’s all.

“In this situation, nothing else is needed. There are no symmetrical responses, and there will obviously be an asymmetrical response, but it will be based on all other Armenia’s actions aimed at cooling relations between the two states,” Denisov concluded.