We proceed from the fact that CSTO membership ensures Armenia with the necessary level of security. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), stated this at Wednesday’s press briefing—and answering the question whether she considers it possible that Armenia will withdraw from the agreements with Russia, in particular from the CSTO.

According to Zakharova, first of all, this question should be asked to Armenia.

"It is a sovereign country with its own plans, strategy, and responsibility towards its people. Secondly, we do not have specific information on this matter. We have not received it, we have not seen it, we have not read it. Thirdly, we proceed from the fact that CSTO membership ensures Armenia with the necessary level of security. There are a number of examples. Naturally, one cannot manipulate the data, which, sadly, we often read in the Armenian media, information resources, when incompatible things are combined. Assessment of the effectiveness of the CSTO and the situation around the settlement of [the] Nagorno-Karabakh [conflict], which has a completely different legal nature and completely different forms of settlement, etc., etc. Sadly, these topics were used in order to manipulate public consciousness. Who benefits from all this? I believe that this is not beneficial to Armenia, first of all, but it is better to address the issue there," said the official representative of the Russian MFA.