Analyst describes EU mission in Armenia as tool to contain Russia and Iran

Speaking to the Armenian media, Russian military analyst Alexander Khramchikhin argued that the deployment of the EU mission in Armenia is an issue of geopolitical presence, Caliber.Az reports.

"The EU mission was sent immediately so that the CSTO mission would not come to Armenia. At that time, the CSTO also made such a proposal, but it was rejected by the Armenian authorities. And the EU was supposed to enter the region, to be present and to create reasons to get rid of Russia," he noted.

"As far as the incidents are concerned, there have been border outbreaks this year, and there have been similar outbreaks in the past. This is not a deterrent mechanism, deterrence can also be done through politics and diplomacy, and deploying the mission is about geopolitical presence, about ensuring the EU's presence in Transcaucasia, which is important to contain the ambitions of both Russia and neighbouring Iran. Let's call a spade a spade. It solves a political problem for the EU in the region.

I cannot say what problem it solves for Armenia. However, we often hear about negative border incidents under the conditions of the presence of EU observers, and their character seems to be changing, we are witnessing smaller and short-term aggravations.

The bad news for the Transcaucasus is that the region and this conflict have become a platform for solving geopolitical issues. The geopolitical issue has come to the fore and overshadowed this complex and dangerous conflict. Of course, this is not good for stability. On the contrary," Khramchikhin said.