Nikolay Silaev: The Armenian leadership, or at least a significant part of it, continues its course to ruin relations with Russia

Speaking with Alpha News, Nikolay Silaev, Senior Research Fellow at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, noted that the Armenian leadership, or at least a significant part of it, continues its course to ruin relations with Russia, especially in the political sphere.

“Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to St. Petersburg gave rise to optimistic expectations among some observers in Russia who thought that the trend towards deterioration in relations between Moscow and Yerevan had at least slowed down. However, the interview with Grigoryan (Secretary of the Armenian Security Council, ed.), unfortunately, shows that the Armenian leadership, or at least a significant part of it, continues its course to ruin relations with Russia, especially in the political sphere.

The strategy of the Armenian authorities still remains a mystery to me. It is clear that the entire political experience of a significant part of the Armenian leadership is emotionally pushing them to break off relations with Russia. However, it is completely unclear what they will gain from this. In theory, they can win something for themselves personally, but not for Armenia.

Significant assistance from the West is very unlikely to happen. Firstly, Ukraine now occupies a lot of the resources of the United States and the European Union. And secondly, it is unclear what the gain from a break with Russia will be. After all, this is not only a withdrawal from the CSTO and the termination of allied relations. There is a requirement to impose sanctions against Russia. If we look at how Georgia’s arms were twisted throughout 2022 and 2023 regarding the introduction of additional sanctions against Russia, we will see what economic effect this brought. Kazakhstan also declares at a very high level that it complies with sanctions and so on, but in reality, of course, it doesn’t. Americans are working with people to stop trade with Russia, but at the same time, trade with Kazakhstan is growing and sanctions are being circumvented. I am a little afraid that if Armenia wants to get any kind of friendship from the West, it will need to sincerely end trade relations with Russia.

Even if Armenia is not satisfied with relations with the CSTO, why talk about it several times a week? If you want to change something, you need diplomacy rather than talking in front of the press. Conversations with the press here lead to nothing. They spoil relations and the emotional background between Moscow and Yerevan and do not solve a single problem,” Silaev noted.