Having committed much of its forces to the war in Ukraine, Moscow is no longer able to guarantee the security of its ally Armenia, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with Politico on Sept. 13.
Such a pointed critique of Moscow from Yerevan is among the harshest yet and indicates the Kremlin is losing influence in the region.
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Pashinyan also made a sharp statement revealing plans for his country to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This implies that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin might potentially be arrested if he visits Armenia, given the outstanding ICC warrant against him.
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Pashinyan noted that since the onset of the war, Moscow aims not to alienate Azerbaijan and its closest ally Turkey, whose strategic importance for the Kremlin has increased, at Armenia’s expense.
In Pashinyan's view, the sealing-off of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan — a crucial link between Armenia and the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh — affirms Russia's diminishing sway over events in the region.
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"All of this … was supposed to be in the sphere of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers and as far as these issues exist, the Russian peacekeepers have failed in their mission," the PM said.
According to Pashinyan, Yerevan wishes to reduce its dependence on other nations to the greatest extent possible. In his opinion, Armenia should not become a proxy state or find itself at the heart of clashes between West and East, or North and South.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine