Armenia’s possible withdrawal will not affect CSTO but will affect country’s defense capability, says Russian official 

The possible decision on Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO will not affect the organization’s defense capability, it will only affect Armenia’s defense capability, head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov told RIA Novosti.

“It will affect only Armenia’s defense capability and nothing else, so it is certainly up to Armenia to decide. The thing is that, to deep regret, the decision will be made by the current leadership of Armenia, which does not take the interests of the Armenian people into consideration. This is the tragedy,” Kartapolov said.

According to Kartapolov, Russia hopes that common sense will prevail in the Armenian people and not in the leadership of the country.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the next logical step after the membership freeze would be the country’s withdrawal from the CSTO. According to him, the situation around the CSTO could theoretically change if Belarus decides to withdraw from the organization or if the president of Belarus “finds such apologies that will be acceptable to the Armenian people.”