The Russian side has always been and remains faithful to the strategic partnership with Armenia, to the existing agreements. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told RBC.
According to him, Russia considers it necessary to preserve and strengthen the age-old close ties between the Russian and Armenian peoples—and which have given a lot to the development of the two peoples and the two countries.
"And it is more than pleasant to see official Yerevan's moves, which, in our opinion, are determined by a completely opposite logic than the one I tried to present to you. The escalation of anti-Russian rhetoric in the expressions of Armenian officials, the intensification of the unfriendly information campaign in the Armenian media space is obvious. All this is based on the unfounded narrative that as if Russia did not help Armenia, as if Russia did not protect the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"This is propaganda rhetoric on the surface. But it is necessary, isn't it, to see the deep reasons and origins of the events that took place on September 19-20. On November 9, 2020, the leaders [of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan] signed a tripartite statement which defined the modalities and approaches leading to peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including the solution of the Karabakh problem. And along with the ways of settlement that I mentioned above, there was also a gentleman's agreement that the status of Karabakh would be decided in the future; everything proceeded from this.
“But about a year ago, this picture underwent significant changes. At the Armenia-Azerbaijan summit in October 2022 under the auspices of the European Union, [Armenian PM] Nikol Pashinyan recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the belonging of Karabakh to Azerbaijan. The validity of the Almaty declaration of December 1991—which drew the border between the newly independent states that were created after the collapse of the Soviet Union, on the borders between the former republics of the USSR—was confirmed. The leadership of Armenia recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan and confirmed this in May 2023 during another Armenia-Azerbaijan-European Union event. And it radically changed the conditions that were signed in the joint statement of November 2020. It was a 180-degree turn of the official position of Yerevan because the incumbent authorities of Armenia officially announced several years ago that Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia.
"Besides, at the phase when Karabakh was declared a part of Azerbaijan, not a single word was said about the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. The relevant documents published by the European Union do not say anything about it. The situation changed radically, and to accuse us [Russia] of not having done something is very strange. It should also be remembered that until then, Russia and other CSTO members were ready to send a CSTO monitoring mission to Armenia; but, unfortunately, we were refused by the top leadership of Armenia. Instead, the European Union's monitoring mission was called to Armenia, which did not play any stabilizing role," said Galuzin.
As for Russian-Armenian relations, Russia, according to him, "always proceeds [from the fact] that at the official level we will resolve complex issues professionally, through diplomatic channels, without any emotionality in the media space."
"But, unfortunately, on the Armenian side, we have seen an intensification of unfriendly public rhetoric towards Russia. As a result, we had to publish the statement you mentioned on September 25. In other words, we moved that debate to the public space only after official Yerevan's anti-Russian rhetoric began to intensify.
"I don't want to present all our arguments here, which testify to the unfriendly behavior of official Yerevan [towards Moscow]. (…). And yet, we expect that the importance of the Russian-Armenian partnership will be properly assessed in Yerevan. And they will be guided first of all by the strong centuries-old ties that unite the peoples of Russia and Armenia," said the Russian deputy FM.
