Calls grow in Armenia for Russians to relinquish control of borders

Politico carries an article about deteriorating relations between Yerevan and Moscow, Caliber.Az reprints the article. 

A senior Armenian official wants Russian border guards to leave the Zvartnots Airport near Yerevan as it has been “proven several times they do not protect” the national border.

“What did they do when they [the Azerbaijanis] came to Nagorno-Karabakh? Did they escort the Armenian people out? Did they protect them?” said Armenia’s parliament speaker Alen Simonyan on Tuesday, about Baku’s lightning offensive to capture the breakaway region last September.

No official decision has been announced yet on kicking the Russians out.

It comes as relations between Yerevan and Moscow deteriorate, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week announcing the country was suspending its membership of the Russia-led military alliance of former Soviet countries, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Russia’s border guard service forms a part of the FSB’s (one of the KGB successors) structures. They are present in Zvartnots through the Russia-Armenia agreement of 1992, which does not specify the roles of Russian border guards but says they can use airports for transportation needs.

Armenian NGOs have reported that Russia’s FSB has violated the agreement by conducting a kidnapping and leaking data.