In an article by Faustine Vincent for the prominent French newspaper “Le Monde,” RSC Director Giragosian offered his comments for the 8 September article, “L’Arménie prend ses distances avec la Russie, alliée jugée défaillante.
Exaspéré par la passivité de Moscou face aux attaques de l’Azerbaïdjan, Erevan rompt avec la neutralité qu’il affichait jusqu’ici sur la guerre en Ukraine. L’ex-république soviétique annonce la livraison d’une aide humanitaire à Kiev, et la tenue d’exercices militaires conjoints avec les Etats-Unis.”
(Excerpts from the original French)
Armenia is moving away from Russia as an unwanted ally
The announcement of joint military exercises "is not a surprise," said Richard Giragosian, director of the Center for Regional Studies in Yerevan and a US citizen. “This is not the first such exercise; the Armenians have already conducted them together with the United States and NATO as part of an international coalition; this happened in Afghanistan, Iraq or Kosovo,” he notes. The scale of the exercises will be modest: according to a representative of the US military, 85 American and 175 Armenian soldiers will take part in them.
Armenia's discontent
Nevertheless, these joint exercises with the United States are “significant”, given the tensions in relations between Yerevan and Moscow, adds Mr. Kirakosyan. "They highlight the weakness of Russia," which is so preoccupied with the conflict in Ukraine that it has been unable to guarantee the safety of Armenians. This is despite the presence of some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region following the outbreak of hostilities between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
“Today’s Armenia has the courage to say no to Moscow,” notes American-Armenian analyst Richard Kirakosyan. Pashinyan is preparing public opinion for such distancing (distancing) from Russia but does not seek to replace Moscow with NATO or the West. The Armenian strategy is not aimed at breaking with Russia, but on “a change in the conditions of relations,” the researcher explains. And at the end of the conversation, Kirakosyan sums up: “This is the end of several decades of blind submission: from now on, everything that Russia wants will have its price.”
The Russian media also republished the original Le Monde article:
“Армения отдаляется от России, как от нежелательного союзника”