Relations with Armenia not Russia's priority, expert says

In an interview with the Armenian media, Russian analyst Stanislav Tarasov commented on Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's remarks on Armenia's cooperation with NATO and whether these remarks should be seen as a threat from Russia.

"This call has been mistakenly considered as a threat because Russia has proven in recent years that it does not intervene in internal affairs and foreign policy decisions, therefore Armenia, as a sovereign state, makes its own decisions, the other question is how much it is considered acceptable by Russia and other allies of Armenia," pundit noted, per Caliber.Az.

"This is an extremely problematic issue. Any foreign policy decision should be subject to serious analysis within the country. As a rule, the foreign policy strategies of countries are predetermined with all decisions for a long-term view, it is a detailed, complicated but necessary work, which is not present in Armenia. Yes, when making such decisions one should take into account not only geography, region, history of the country, interests, current state of the world, history of NATO, opportunities, desire for rapprochement and, most importantly, the path of the countries that want to get closer to NATO.

When it came to admitting post-Soviet countries to NATO, the Alliance was not ready to quickly arrange for Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to join, and the dialogue between these countries and NATO dragged on for decades. The reason is that NATO is not ready for the greater responsibility that membership entails. The main task is to cut them off from Russia.

Will Armenia become a NATO member? I doubt it very much, but Yerevan's close cooperation with NATO will be a problem for Moscow and Tehran. In other words, Armenia will have political problems, because there is a serious geopolitical problem between NATO and these countries, and this is nothing new.

I think there will be no other reaction from Russia. As you have noticed, Russia is very calm on issues related to Armenia, because Armenia-NATO relations and their future will be part of broader developments. Relations with Armenia, decisions made by Armenia are not a priority for Russia," Tarasov said.