Armenia refuses to host Russia-led military drills

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, left, and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attend a news conference in Sochi, Russia, on November 26, 2021. MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / AP

Armenia will not host Russian-led military exercises this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday, January 10, in a sign of growing frustration with Moscow.

Mr. Pashinyan's announcement came after the leader of the ex-Soviet republic criticized the work of Russian peacekeepers in the South Caucasus, which has been plagued for decades by fighting between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan.

Mr. Pashinyan told reporters he saw no reason for the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to stage military drills in Armenia this year.

Headquartered in Moscow, the CSTO groups Russia and the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"These exercises will not take place," Mr. Pashinyan said. "Armenia does not believe it is expedient to conduct CSTO exercises in the republic this year".

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The prime minister noted the organization refused to condemn Azerbaijan which fought a six-week war with Armenia for control of the majority-Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

The conflict caused the death of 6,500 and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Yerevan cede territories it had controlled for decades and Moscow send peacekeepers to Karabakh. Despite the end of the large-scale fighting, tensions over the borders persist.