US wants to make Armenia anti–Russian stronghold — Andrey Klimov

Speaking with Alpha News, Andrey Klimov, Deputy Chair of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, commented on the statement by the press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service that the United States is preparing an operation for Armenia’s pivot to the West.

“I think this statement is absolutely justified. I fully support this message by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and add that we ourselves, both through party diplomacy and parliamentary diplomacy, both at bilateral meetings and at multilateral meetings, have repeatedly warned our Armenian colleagues about such threats and about Washington’s desire. The US wanted to make Armenia an anti-Russian stronghold in the Caucasus at least until very recently,” Klimov said.

According to the senator, for many decades the United States has deliberately created tension zones around Russia.

“We see this threat, we speak about it openly to our Armenian partners with whom we have relations, and we believe that this will harm, first of all, Armenia and its people. We’ll see what kind of policy the United States will choose after the inauguration of Trump. In any case, there are still people in the United States who believe that the more difficult life in Russia is, the better it is for them. And whatever it was in the Ukrainian direction until recently, for many decades the United States has deliberately created tension zones around us in order, as they say, to overload Russia with these problems and get rid of us as a geopolitical competitor. Washington has been pursuing this strategy for decades,” Klimov concluded.