Andranik Kocharyan cannot say directly about Russia forcing Armenia, but he can say that it is visible in the goals that such desires exist in circulation. Kocharyan, a member of the ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security, told Public TV about this on Tuesday—and referring to Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan's statement that Russia is forcing Armenia to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

"You can always talk about pressures. Back in the [19]90s, there was a plan to create a union state, [respective] signatures were being collected, a coordination group was created. It was about an Armenia-Russia-Belarus union; and that idea has come, reached today. Ultimately, they bring, link all of this to the stability of our security environment and keeping the stability, which indicates that something is wrong here in terms of goals and desires," he said.

According to Kocharyan, it is strange that the Lachin corridor connecting Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Armenia remains closed for about 20 days, in the case when the Russian military units in the area are obligated to resolve this problem because the latter cannot remain unsolved.

"The closed corridor means keeping our compatriots [in Artsakh] under siege, and this is fraught with very bad consequences. In the end, this could lead to volatile tension that will not be beneficial to anyone. Even if the corridor remains closed in the case of first-person discussions, it will turn out that this has other goals, will become a reality, then our country, our sovereign state must manage its political potential in such a way as to keep our people as far as possible from such a scenario of possible developments. But that does not mean that we should make such concessions so that not our state's goals, but the goal of other states are realized," he said.

When asked what the Armenian government is doing to prevent the closure of the Lachin corridor in the future, Andranik Kocharyan said that they are doing everything to restore the security environment.

"We have created the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Armenia is creating foreign intelligence, we have adopted six laws related to reforms in the Armenian Armed Forces, which gives an opportunity to get a completely new, professional army. The military balance in the region has been broken, which was the reason for the war, either in April 2016 or in 2020; that balance should be restored between us and the adversary state [i.e., Azerbaijan]," he said.

According to the chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security, the dialogue with Azerbaijan should be continued—but only after the situation is stabilized.