Russia warns Armenia: Cooperation with West threatens security, CSTO membership

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin has said that Armenia's actions may make it impossible to return to joint work on the creation of a common defence space with Russia and other CSTO countries, as they will provide Western representatives with access to sensitive information.

According to him, Yerevan seems to want to seize the moment at a time when the West is showing increased interest in strengthening cooperation, including in the security sphere, Galuzin told TASS.

"However, ill-considered decisions that will ensure full access of Westerners to national databases, to information sensitive to the country's security, not only threaten the sovereignty of the state in the end, but may also make it objectively impossible to return to joint work on building a common defence space with Russia and other CSTO allies," the deputy foreign minister stressed. 

Galuzin is also convinced that Armenia's full participation in the work of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is primarily in the interests of the Armenian people and serves to maintain peace and stability in the South Caucasus region. No matter what the Westerners, who are increasingly courting Yerevan, promise, there are no effective alternatives to the CSTO as a mechanism for ensuring Armenia's security today. 

As the diplomat noted, Russia is really interested in establishing a lasting peace among its neighbours in the South Caucasus, while the West's goals are fundamentally opposite. One of the main objectives is to undermine integration processes in Eurasia, common integration projects, CSTO, CIS, EAEU. To achieve this goal, Washington and its allies are ready to take any steps, including destabilisation of the internal political and socio-economic situation in Russia's neighbouring states.