YEREVAN. – The Russian Federation (RF) already fully controls the foreign policy and security of Armenia.

Political opposition member Davit Shahnazaryan, who is Director of Concord Center for Legal and Political Studies, said the aforementioned at a press conference on Tuesday.

He noted that these matters are resolved the same way for two hundred years.

“By pursuing solely its own interests, Russia will never solve the Karabakh [or Artsakh] issue in the way that we would like. [Consequently,] with the movement in 1988, we liberated Karabakh from the Russian empire, first, and only then from Azerbaijan. 

“The RF has one issue: not to settle the [Karabakh] conflict, and to deploy its troops in the conflict zone [and] under the guise of peacekeepers. The Republic of Armenia, the factor that was the sole guarantee of Artsakh’s security, is disappearing,” Shahnazaryan noted.  

He stressed that Russia’s foreign policy is the only threat to Armenia’s statehood. In his view, Armenia’s borders were basically the politico-military borders of Russia. Now, however, Russia gives new qualities to these borders. 

“Russia has never respected our statehood, our sovereignty. Russia is and has always been an empire. And today’s Russia is an empire; RF President Putin [himself] has publicly stated this,” Davit Shahnazaryan said, in particular.