Hundreds of intelligence officers work at US embassy in Yerevan Caliber.Az interview with renowned Russian lawyer

Caliber.Az had an interview with a well-known Russian lawyer and public figure, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Yanis Yuksha.

- As you know President Vladimir Putin in his televised address to the nation has voiced several messages on the situation around the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, announcing partial mobilisation among other things. How do you assess his statements that Russia will use all means to defend itself? Does this mean that Moscow is ready to use weapons of mass destruction?

- Putin is a tough president from the point of view of the Western world, although in Russia itself there are much more radical views, and in this case, I think he is a great democrat. He is a very cautious man, always trying to negotiate, so in assessing him as a tough politician, the West is making a profound mistake. As to mobilisation, we have a fairly large peacetime army - we have over one million people, one million 200 thousand to be exact. Accordingly, today there is a rather small, limited contingent on the Ukrainian directions, which makes about 120 thousand people. So, nowadays the army as a whole has a large contractual component. There are a lot of professional specialists who could increase with their potential and capabilities the forces of the Russian grouping in order to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. At this stage, the mobilisation aims at (300,000) replacing the specialists who are working in many areas, and the released forces (contract servicemen) should be sent to difficult areas, such as the Donbas. The most important function of any state is to defend its independence and its citizens. Russia will do this by any means necessary. Talks like "we will defeat and divide Russia" are just silly rhetoric that is voiced to please US hegemony, which is a tool, I would even say, a battering ram of a certain group of people who think they are the world government and believe that they can move tanks, ships, rule over people, create famine, destroy cities and ruin entire countries and that they alone can do all this. But they are mistaken, I am sure history will show how this whole bunch of people will fail and will be punished.

- Russia is also closely monitoring the South Caucasus agenda in parallel, and President Putin has said that measures are being taken through the CSTO to reduce tensions between Baku and Yerevan. What are your expectations from the results of the CSTO special mission against the background of the anti-Russian hysteria, which is again observed in Armenia?

- As for the Caucasus agenda, it is quite obvious why it is being ratcheted up today. Armenia is the only country in the South Caucasus that has the largest US representation, with more than a thousand employees, most of whom represent the US intelligence system. Therefore, of course, certain forces from outside will try to push Armenia into the trouble zone. As far as the CSTO mission is concerned, I believe it will come up with some kind of recommendations, according to which ways of settling Armenian-Azerbaijani relations will be proposed. It is very important that Armenia agrees to these proposals. It seems to me that movement towards the implementation of these recommendations should be reciprocal. Of course, a lot depends on Armenia, but there are also issues that depend on Azerbaijan. Therefore, we would hope that the sides will find some kind of compromise to establish peace in the region.

- So, do you think it is possible to achieve a peaceful dialogue and sign a comprehensive document between Baku and Yerevan?

- Yes, I do not rule out the possibility of achieving some kind of dialogue and signing a peace document between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I assume that there will be forces and some right lines of thought, which will allow not to rock such a sensitive topic for the two neighbouring countries.

- Is the Armenian leadership capable of making an official decision on the country's withdrawal from the CSTO?

- Armenia will not leave the CSTO, this is a very serious step, which will deprive the country of very many privileges. I think the Armenian leadership also understands this and is aware of it.