BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 18
Trend:
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who had recently pretended to be infected with COVID-19, suddenly recovered and departed to Minsk to take part in a meeting of representatives of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
It should be noted that the EAEU summit was held in Minsk at the level of the prime ministers of the organization's member states, but formally, Pashinyan should not have attended this event due to his rank as the head of state. According to the status, it was the deputy prime minister of the Armenian government who should have participated in the summit. Armenia is a parliamentary republic where the prime minister has broader powers.
To repeat: due to his status, he may have not arrived in Minsk and sent instead his deputy. On the other hand, Pashinyan is officially the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces, and in the context of the aggravation of the conflict with Azerbaijan, his flight to Belarus to participate in this meeting looked at least out of time. Why did Pashinyan fly to Minsk?
Firstly, Pashinyan rushed to Minsk to meet with Russian Prime Minister Mishustin; despite the fact that the Armenian prime minister is treated with contempt in the political elite in Russia, the meeting in Minsk gave a chance to obtain the favor of the Russian leadership.
Secondly, Pashinyan, through his own fault, has accumulated numerous negative factors including the provocation organized by him on the border with Azerbaijan, a bad epidemic situation in Armenia, and a sharp decline of his rating in the country.
Thirdly, Pashinyan desperately needs help in the confrontation with Azerbaijan that relies on a powerful army and influential allies, especially after Azerbaijan's threat to launch a missile strike at the Armenian nuclear power plant in response to Yerevan's promise to strike at the dam of the Mingachevir reservoir.
Even prior to the Minsk summit, vigorous statements were made in Armenia, which expressed hope for Russian mediation in the settlement of the border conflict. Moreover, Armenians also counted on the political support of the Pashinyan regime from the Kremlin. But none of this happened for one simple reason: Moscow knows very well what a bad politician Pashinyan is and quickly saw through his provocation game on the border.
Besides, Moscow did not forget that Pashinyan showed open disrespect for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) by ordering the arrest of the current secretary general of the organization, Colonel General Yuri Khachaturov. In response to Pashinyan's demand to urgently convene a CSTO meeting to complain about Azerbaijan's behavior, the "allies" said that "the meeting was postponed for an indefinite period."
This was a serious blow to the political reputation of Pashinyan and his entourage. Everything that he managed to "achieve" in Minsk was reflected in his own statement: "There is no alternative to peace negotiations."