Many Risks Faced by Armenia Today Could Have Been Reduced, Galuzin States

Many risks faced by Armenia today could have been reduced if Yerevan had accepted the proposal to implement a package of measures to stabilize the situation at the border with Azerbaijan through the CSTO in 2022. This was stated in an interview with TASS by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.

"These were serious initiatives, including military-technical assistance, sending a monitoring mission, and support for the training of border troops. Unfortunately, the leadership of Armenia preferred to invite an EU mission, which does not protect the country's borders at all, but is engaged in gathering intelligence data against Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia under the guise of monitoring," the diplomat said.

According to him, Russia is indeed interested in establishing stable peace among neighbors in the South Caucasus. At the same time, according to Galuzin, the goals of the West, where the leadership of Armenia is now actively seeking new security partners, are of a completely opposite nature.

"One of the main goals is to undermine integration processes in Eurasia; our joint integration projects – CSTO, CIS, EAEU – are a bone in their throat. To achieve this goal, Washington and its allies are ready to take any steps, including destabilizing the domestic political and socio-economic situation in neighboring states to Russia. Intra-regional contradictions are being exploited. Such partners cannot be trusted. National interests and the strengthening of the stability of the Armenian state are not priorities for the West. On the contrary, it benefits from maintaining hotspots of tension in the post-Soviet space to weaken Russia, which remains the main guarantor of security here," Galuzin concluded.