RSC Director Richard Giragosian was a guest on the Royal United Services Institute’s (RUSI) Global Security Briefing podcast: Episode 75: “Russia’s Changing Position in the South Caucasus” on 1 May 2024. In this episode, hosted by Neil Melvin of RUSI, Giragosian joined Natia Seskuria, the Founder and Executive Director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies (RISS) in Tbilisi.
This podcast assessed Russia’s engagement in the South Caucasus, focusing on interpreting Moscow’s strategic goals in the region, and measuring its relative decline in power and influence in the region in the wake of the failed Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One noteworthy point in Giragosian’s analysis was that for Armenia, and the wider South Caucasus, the contrast between Russia and the West is really “no contest,” pointing out the difference between the policy approaches of the EU and Russia, whereby the EU engagement is based on “seduction and attraction,” while the Russian approach is one of “threats and coercion.”