There is every reason to believe that the Europeans, and first of all the French, are interested in maintaining regional tension in order to achieve their own geopolitical goals. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), stated this at Thursday’s press briefing.

"We have absolutely no illusions about what they are trying to convince us that Paris has good intentions in the South Caucasus. And indeed, the agenda in the region has nothing to do with the de-escalation process, normalization, peacebuilding, creativity, etc. We have repeatedly witnessed attempts by the Elysee Palace to exert mediation efforts at the cost of aggravating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and disagreements. The French themselves bear a significant part of the responsibility for the sabotage and de facto collapse of the work of the OSCE Minsk Group in 2022.

We know well what the European Union's real goals are in Armenia. They are absolutely in no way connected with the tasks of promoting the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan.

They, I mean the representatives of the European Union, can be called spy-monitors. And they work both internally and externally, against all states and countries adjacent to Armenia. This has been noted by many regional players. Moreover, the information that the representatives of Paris collect while in the region, they do not share with their Armenian colleagues in any way because the goal is different. They go straight to Brussels. For what? It seems to me that no one hides the Brussels’ task in the post-Soviet space. It is endless chaos, disagreement, and opposition to each other. Moreover, as we understand, the ideas of the European Union and France are at the center of their thoughts, so to speak, expanding the scope of the mission's tasks," Zakharova said.

According to her, the EU's goal in Armenia is to "enter the South Caucasus by all necessary means, to rely on the ‘local’ so that neither regional players, nor neighboring countries, nor member states of regional associations decide their own issues and fate."

"Yes, they are called ‘NATO missions,’ they are called ‘NATO headquarters or representation.’ Well, which countries? NATO. Of course, monitors do not bring stability to the region. We record reports of shooting in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone. This once again confirms that the activities of non-regional parties, be it the European Union or France, clearly do not bring peace to the South Caucasus closer.

(…) by drawing Armenia into the orbit of the collective West with blurred and, as always, deceptive prospects, France seeks to undermine the centuries-old Russian-Armenian relations, which have always worked for the benefit of the peoples, sometimes both of ours countries. Does such a mission of France and the European Union correspond to the aspirations, tasks, and interests of the Armenian people? Of course not,” added the Russian MFA spox.