What reaction does Pashinyan expect from official Moscow?

If you carefully follow the Armenian media, you can see that the current government is often guided by the “course of the day” in its attitude. After the 44-day war, from Nikol Pashinyan to Tigran Avinyan, they expressed gratitude to Russia for stopping the war and providing all possible assistance to Armenia during the fighting.

Later, the rhetoric of the Armenian authorities changed, and today we have reached the point where Russia is almost directly accused of encouraging Azerbaijan to first attack Armenia in 2021, and then attack Artsakh in 2023, and the purpose of this attack was allegedly to force Armenia to enter the war, and this, according to the authorities, would lead to the dissolution of the Armenian statehood.

Three years have passed between groveling before Russia and accusing it of trying to dissolve Armenian statehood and a number of domestic and foreign policy processes.

Today, it is obvious, even to the inexperienced reader and viewer, that we are witnessing another stage of crisis in Armenian-Russian relations, which manifests itself in Nikol Pashinyan’s openly Russophobic interview with Armenian Public Television. Russia was accused of actually creating conditions for the dissolution of the Armenian statehood; Putin was accused of surrendering Artsakh and the Russian Foreign Ministry was accused of incompetence and criminal negligence. It is also clear from the decision of the regulatory body to deprive the Sputnik radio station of broadcasting rights in Armenia for a month.

The “course of the day” dictates this behavior to the authorities, but what is the root cause of this behavior?

Many things suggest that Pashinyan hopes to receive a harsh response from Moscow, which will be used as an excuse not to travel to St. Petersburg for the informal annual meeting of the heads of the CIS member states and the EAEU session.

Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov stated that he expects Pashinyan to attend the CIS and EAEU meetings in St. Petersburg. Moreover, in an interview with Alpha News, Ushakov said that Russia received a clear signal that Pashinyan would arrive in St. Petersburg in December.

The problem is that Western entities in Armenia openly oppose Pashinyan’s visit to Russia. In many ways, this position is conditioned by the fact that earlier in the history of Armenia, there were cases when one visit of the Armenian leader to Russia drastically changed the foreign policy of the country, and instead of association with the EU, Armenia found itself in the Customs Union. It is these concerns that encourage these entities to oppose Pashinyan’s visit to Russia.

Don’t be surprised if the Russophobic attacks intensify in the next 2-3 days; it will be logical.

However, let the Russian authorities deal with this issue, after all, as the Little Prince said: “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

As for the political Russophobia in the form of a ban on the broadcasting of Sputnik, there is one question: if it is possible to deprive Sputnik of a broadcasting license for “spreading panic”, then is it possible to deprive RFE/RL of a license for spreading misleading information that “Turkiye is deterring Azerbaijan from military aggression against Armenia?” Or will someone in the West not let you do it?

For a very long time, we have had a power characterized by its emptiness. This was also very clearly noticed by external players who are trying to fill this void with an agenda that benefits them (as an example, Pashinyan should not attend the EAEU meeting), promoting anti-Armenian codes while ranting about sovereignty and statehood.

Such political codes have already ruined the Ukrainian economy, resulting in territorial losses and the threat of dissolution of the state.

In our case, however, it will not be possible to limit ourselves to territorial losses if we turn out to be so ignorant and harm our own sovereignty by entering into a game guided by external forces.