Russia accused Armenia on Thursday of trying to sever increasingly fragile ties between the two countries at a time when Yerevan is increasingly questioning Moscow’s role as guarantor of regional security, France Presse and Agerpres reported.

The small South Caucasian country, whose relations with its Turkic-speaking neighbor Azerbaijan have been extremely strained since the collapse of the Soviet Union’s armed conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory, accused Russia of doing nothing to help when war broke out again. in 2020.

“The leadership of Armenia under false pretenses and distorting the history of the last three years is deliberately leading to a break in relations with the Russian Federation,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian mass media.

Armenia has recently hinted that it may withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty, an alliance of former Soviet republics under the auspices of Russia.

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described the country’s security alliances as “ineffective” after the Azerbaijani army in September regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed Azerbaijani territory that was seized by force by an Armenian separatist majority backed by Yerevan in the early 1990s. .

Russian peacekeeping forces took up positions between the warring parties after a brief armed conflict in 2020, but in September did not prevent the Azerbaijani army from forcefully regaining control of the area, leading to an outflow of the Armenian population from Karabakh.

Armenia boycotted the Collective Security Treaty summit at the end of 2023, and Nikol Pashinyan accused the organization of failing to fulfill its obligations.

Yerevan has refocused on other international partners, especially France and the US, AFP notes.

Read also:

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• Armenia’s prime minister says his country can no longer rely on Russia for defense
• Armenia says for the first time that it may withdraw from the Russian-led military alliance
• Armenia is considering an application for membership in the EU – the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Nikol Pashinyan says he made a “strategic mistake” when he relied only on Russia as a guarantee of Armenia’s security
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