Franz Klintsevich: Armenia’s ambivalence has serious implications

Russian politician and ex-senator of Russia’s Federation Council Franz Klintsevich commented to Alpha News on recent statements by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan regarding the diversification of the country’s security system as well as Pashinyan’s proposal to Azerbaijan to sign a non-aggression pact.

“Armenia started to diversify its security a long time ago, and the actions that it has recently taken—which sometimes border on betrayal of relations with Russia—the activity of France is, of course, NATO’s work, but I believe that Pashinyan does not completely understand the consequences. They play with him as much as possible in order to do Russia a lot of harm. And the fact that he will now purchase American weapons, switch to the NATO standard, and train his soldiers and officers according to the NATO standard will bring serious problems. We have our own agreements, and we have our law enforcement agencies on the territory of Armenia.

They [the Armenian authorities] seriously contribute to the deterioration of these relations, but it seems to me that this is extremely unnecessary today for Armenia. He [Pashinyan] was convinced long ago that he should be friends with the West and not with Russia. Russia, allegedly, will not protect him. But so far, it is only Russia that defends Armenia. But this attempt is a road to nowhere, especially since the problems of Europe and NATO will soon be extremely acute for them. They have already played too long, just like the political leadership of Armenia,” Klintsevich said.

According to the ex-senator, Pashinyan’s idea to sign a non-aggression pact with Azerbaijan is what Armenia needs, but it is unlikely that official Baku will respond positively to this initiative.

“The non-aggression pact is extremely important for Armenia today. Whether Armenia will conclude this pact or not, I’m not sure, well, I just don’t know. At least, the Azerbaijani side is now considering both the arms control proposal and the non-aggression pact.

But today’s ambivalence of the Republic of Armenia has serious implications due to the developments and escalation of conflicts that are taking place in the world today. In this regard, many other forces can take advantage, first of all, of Armenia’s weakness. I am deeply concerned about this,” Klintsevich noted.