Pashinyan should get down to work and stop playing politics with the US. This is what senior fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Paul Stronski wrote on Twitter as he commented on Pashinyan’s criticism of the US.

Stronski states that the US was highly critical of Kocharyan and Sargsyan in 2008 and that is why it pulled the Millennium Challenges Corporation funding. The analyst also reminded that the US increased its assistance significantly to Armenia after the transfer of power. “Unlike the EU, which pledges money, but delivers slowly, $14 million in additional assistance flowed into Armenia from US within 6 months,” writes the analyst.

Stronski also touched upon Armenia’s humanitarian mission in Syria. “The US understands Armenian interests in Syria because of diaspora. But Armenian deployment of deminers in Syria alongside Russia is a big deal to the US,” he said.

According to Stronski, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus long resisted Russian pressure to deploy to Syria to support Moscow’s efforts to prop up man who used chemical weapons on own people, but Armenia is so far only one that has.

Stronski stressed that there seemed to be no messaging strategy to the West, nor did there appear to be an understanding of how this would appear to Armenia’s European and North American partners. “US-Armenia relationship is strong, and this is an unforced error. But, Pashinyan has work to do and he should do it, instead of blaming the US,” he concluded.