The military bloc — Russia’s answer to NATO — is made up of six former Soviet states: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
However, Pashinyan has accused the CSTO of failing to intervene after his country was attacked by neighboring Azerbaijan in 2022. He has also said Russian peacekeepers failed in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year, when Azerbaijan launched an offensive that sparked the mass exodus of its 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents.
As a result, Armenia had vowed it would “freeze” its membership of the alliance, recall its representatives and would not contribute financially to its budget. Moscow has insisted that Yerevan will be “obliged” to pay its dues regardless.
Instead, Pashinyan’s government has staged joint drills with U.S. forces, called for help from the West to strengthen its democracy and even hinted it could one day seek to join the EU. Russian border guards have since been withdrawn from their positions along Armenia’s borders with its neighbors.
However, according to Vasif Huseynov of Azerbaijan’s AIR Center think tank, Armenia’s ongoing economic dependency on Russia means “its complete departure from Moscow's orbit does not seem realistic” at this stage. Russia maintains a monopoly over key parts of trade with Armenia, as well as over its energy and infrastructure.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to provide any further details beyond the Prime Minister’s comments.
AnAmericanLibrarian on June 12nd, 2024 at 18:33 UTC »
The CSTO left Armenia, first.
This part is just formalizing the paperwork.
DeliberateNegligence on June 12nd, 2024 at 15:47 UTC »
Stunning move but not surprised Pashik is moving away from Russia. It did not fulfill its obligations or provide any significant protection throughout the most recent Karabakh crisis, and without Artsakh around and Syunik under threat Armenia has everything to lose by remaining in the Russian military sphere. how much of this is Pashik’s fault is an open question, and his pro-west stance probably helped isolate Armenia and led to the current situation. But nevertheless, Armenia’s only option for security at this point is to seek it from the West (which doesn’t care) and Turkey and Azerbaijan (who will enact a heavy price, part of which likely includes leaving CSTO). Woe to the conquered.
New_Race9503 on June 12nd, 2024 at 15:39 UTC »
Man, I dont know whether that's a good idea. Also, the article mentions "freezing" the membership...sounds a bit non-committing to me.