"Moscow should leave brazen Armenia alone with Azerbaijan"
Russian TG channel exposes Yerevan's insidiousness

REGION  31 March 2023 - 12:03

"The unprecedented impudence of statements by Armenian officials, confirmed by the Constitutional Court, that the president of Russia, a key CSTO member, will be arrested per the decision of the provincial ICC, ignored by all leading powers, forces the Russian leadership to radically change the configuration of foreign policy in the Caucasus region. Otherwise, there is a danger of 'losing face' not only in the Caucasus but also in the world. Armenia in this variant will turn from the status of a 'suitcase without a handle' which, as you know, is difficult to carry, and it is pity to drop it, will turn simply into a suitcase thrown on the road."

According to Caliber.Az, the Russian TG channel Nezygar, which has almost 350,000 subscribers, made the due post the other day.

"The entire post-Soviet period of Armenian-Russian relations has been defined by the desire of Armenian ruling circles to solve their economic and military problems at the expense of Russia ('you are so big and we are so small'). At the same time, dragging Moscow into the Karabakh conflict based on unilateral anti-Azerbaijani arguments and ignoring Baku's motivation, Yerevan motivated the need to support its position by the deployment of the 102nd military base, border guards, and air force units on Armenian territory. However, Moscow, given the current confrontation in the SMO (Special Military Operation) and given the hostile actions of Armenia, does not need to spend tens of billions on military-technical cooperation. It is in Russia's national interest to eliminate the military base and withdraw the troops and border guards, leaving Yerevan to deal with Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and partly Georgia on its own (the Dashnaks claim several districts inhabited by Batumi and Javakheti Armenians).

Russia is also disadvantaged by economic cooperation with Armenia, where high-tech industries have been destroyed. Investments in several enterprises (copper smelter, pharmaceuticals, building materials, etc.) deprive Russian enterprises of capital investment. Currency withdrawals from Russia to Armenian banks are estimated to have risen to $3.5 billion in 2022, strengthening the fragile dram (Armenian currency) and ensuring the growth of per capita GDP to $6,500 (+8%). There is no adequate counter-flow of goods since the bulk of Armenian exports is food and agricultural products at prices 10-15% higher than similar supplies from Central Asia, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan. Armenia is actually on Russia's payroll.

This absurd situation, in which Russia is essentially a 'high-tech appendage' of Armenia (2 million 900,000 residents), losing hundreds of billions of rubles, has been created, preserved, and supported by the powerful Armenian lobby in the Foreign Ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office and some other state institutions, supported and sponsored by the second most financially powerful business community. Diasporas in California, France, and Lebanon are involved when opportunistically possible. This may explain Russia's lack of an unambiguous response to Yerevan's position. Such silence could lead to serious foreign policy problems similar (on a smaller scale) to Gorbachev's version of German unification.

To be fair, it should be noted that representatives of the scientific, technical, and creative intelligentsia of Armenian origin in Moscow strongly condemn the actions of the power elite in Yerevan, controlled by moneymakers: 'these shopkeepers will lead Hayastan to another tragedy,'" writes the Russian TG channel.

Caliber.Az