The United States’ move to enforce fresh sanctions against Russia gives absolutely no ground for concern, especially to Armenia, according a Yerevan-based political analyst.

Speaking to Tert.am, Levon Shirinyan described the Trump administration’s recent decision as an attempt to ‘constrain Russia’s appetite’.

“Russia’s expansionist appetite is really big, as they want to seize Donbass, Ukraine and Armenia,” he said, blaming the country also for provoking repeated hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“With those sanctions now, the United States are making attempts to moderate that appetite,” Shirinyan added.

The expert said he also sees Russian attempts to establish dominance over Armenia through soft power. “While they now propose giving Russian a state language status, sometime in the future, they may urge us to change also our religion. That’s a Russian style of acting, a way of seizing [Armenia],” he noted.

Shirinyan attributed the country’s somewhat uneasy conduct to inability to maintain the one-time strong influence over the South Caucasus region. He also criticized Russia’s return move to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country as an absolutely non-adequate reaction.

“Russia will have to moderate [its ambitions]. They have no other choice. Nothing is developing in Russia – neither economy, nor agriculture and nor even science. Whatever they have created so far was due to the technologies [imported] from the West. So they are now blocking that way,” he added.

 http://www.tert.am/en/news/2017/07/29/shirinyan/2444728