‘Not everything is smooth in Russian-Armenuan relations’: Denis Denisov on Lavrov’s statements

Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Denis Denisov commented on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements regarding Armenia, the trilateral meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels.

According to the expert, Armenia’s position, which is often the opposite of Russia’s, raises concerns.

“Larov’s statement on Armenia, first of all, suggests that at the moment, not everything is going smoothly in bilateral relations between Russia and Armenia, to say the least. The events of the last not even a few months, but a year demonstrate that the positions of the parties on a number of issues, both regional and global security, primarily Armenia’s security, are very different from each other, both in assessments and forecasts.

In this regard, the position of the Armenian leadership, which is often quite opposite to that of Russia, especially regarding the interaction with the countries of the collective West, cannot but cause significant concern among Russian leaders. Because naturally, Russia perceives Armenia as its strategic partner, as a very close country, and as a friendly fraternal people. But the policy of the Armenian leadership, according to Russia, does not always resonate with the aspirations of the Armenian citizens. Armenia is important for Russia, and until recently it remained a stronghold for it in the South Caucasus, so the Kremlin also perceives complications in bilateral relations very painfully,” Denisov said.

According to the expert, the upcoming trilateral meeting will not bring any sensational breakthroughs.

“The United States and the European Union will once again try to involve Armenia in their geopolitical projects, which they have recently been trying to carry out contrary to Russia’s national security interests. This is a fairly important signal for Russia. I don’t want to say that by doing this, the West is trying to spite Russia, but in Moscow, it is perceived that way. So, such steps on the part of Armenia will be perceived extremely painfully in Moscow,” Denisov said.

Speaking about the possible accession of Armenia to the EU, the expert said that given the number of problems that the EU now has, Armenia’s accession is clearly not a priority.

“At the moment, it is difficult to talk about any specific and real prospects related to the full, comprehensive integration of Armenia into the European Union. Under the current conditions, the European Union has so many of its own internal problems related to foreign policy that the issue of Armenia’s accession is clearly not a priority. You should not expect that Armenia’s accession will be considered according to some kind of facilitated or accelerated procedure. Moreover, we know that the European Union has a fairly large number of criteria based on which it begins negotiations.

We can consider these statements in contrast to the Russian-Armenian relations, because the worse the relations are, the more such statements are made,” Denisov noted.

According to the political scientist, the ban on broadcasting Russian TV programs in Armenia is a political decision designed to once again demonstrate that any harsh rhetoric on the Armenian issue is unacceptable for the current Armenian authorities.

“There is a political aspect in all steps related to bilateral relations. It is the sovereign right of Armenia to ban certain programs, but it is a pity that the Armenian leadership often does not focus on the opinion of its population but proceeds from its own political vision of the situation. This is a political decision, designed to once again demonstrate that any harsh rhetoric on the Armenian issue is unacceptable for the current Armenian authorities,” Denisov concluded.