By opening Russia’s consulate general in Stepanakert, Baku is trying to deprive Armenia of its last feature

The day before, it was reported that official Moscow plans to open its consulate general in occupied Stepanakert soon. The news comes as the Armenian authorities have been delaying the opening of the Russian consulate in Syunik for several months, doing everything to ensure that the French consulate opens first. However, we will not talk about this and will analyze the geopolitical context of this news instead.

The Armenian authorities, as well as some “analysts” working with the opposition, have been convincing the Armenian public for several years that “Russia is withdrawing from the region.” Moreover, the subtext of the information is that Nikol Pashinyan is the one who is withdrawing Russia with his “sovereign” policy, with an important milestone in this process being the complete withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Artsakh. So, less than a month has passed since the closing ceremony of the joint center of Russia and Turkey in Aghdam, as Russia announced its intention to open a consulate general in Stepanakert. In other words, ranting about the withdrawal of Russia from the South Caucasus is the wet dream of a very narrow group of people who “constantly win a war against Russia in which Russia does not even participate.”
For many years, Armenia had a number of features that made it an attractive partner, and thanks to this, Armenian statehood stood firm in an unstable region:

Armenian Karabakh was of interest to Russia and Iran in their regional constructs. This made it possible to ensure, among other things, security both along the physical borders and strategic ones;
Armenia, being a state fighting for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, was perceived as the center of the anti-Turkish fight. This was interesting to Russia, Iran, Greece, China, and a number of European, Asian, and even Arab countries that have constant problems with Turkey;
Finally, Armenia was a “regional operator of Russia’s interests.” Out of habit, both in the world and in the region (read, for example, the Iranian press), it is still perceived like this.

All the aforementioned points ensured Armenia’s security and made it an interesting geopolitical partner within the framework of the global “chessboard”.
The only thing that remained for Armenia before the announcement of the opening of the consulate general in Stepanakert was the status of Russia’s exclusive partner in the region, and Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the actions of the Armenian authorities, deprives official Yerevan of this status. It is with this factor that the opening of the said consulate general should be associated.

Only time will tell whether the “Russian leadership’s bet” on regional reorientation towards Azerbaijan is correct, but these are the problems of Russia and its authorities. We can only conclude that in a few years Armenia has gone from Russia’s strategic ally in the region, from a country confidently controlling its entire territory and Artsakh, having a single military-political and economic system with Artsakh, which did not allow the enemy to reach Kirants, Sevan, or Tigranashen, to a country without allies, without Artsakh, and with a destroyed front line.

We need to be sincere and understand that this process did not begin in 2018, even before there were people among Armenian top leaders who believed that “Russia is a sinking ship from which Armenia needs to jump off as soon as possible.” The result of this particular form of thinking was that Russia is now reorienting within the region.
Artsakh, Kirants, and many other things will be received by the side that managed to reorient itself in time in the “turbulent world of geopolitical transformations.”
Think about it…