Russian analyst: Pashinyan ready to deploy NATO troops on Armenian territory

In a recent statement to Russian media, political scientist, a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, Bogdan Bezpalko, highlighted Armenia's potential willingness to deploy NATO troops on its territory as part of a shift in its foreign policy towards the West.

"The practical embodiment of the Western vector of Yerevan's foreign policy can be Armenia's withdrawal from the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organisation] and even the deployment of a small contingent of NATO on the territory of the country. In addition, the Armenian leadership is trying to ‘blackmail’ Moscow with this in order to get from it a tougher position towards Azerbaijan or at least favourable financial assistance," Caliber.Az quotes Bezpalko as saying.

Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that Yerevan considers the United States and Europe its main partners, but this does not mean a turn in foreign policy. He added that Armenia does not intend to join NATO, the country already has cooperation with the organisation.

"The first aspect is that sooner or later all these statements and aspirations will reach a certain critical mass, and they will turn into actions. That is, in this case Armenia will officially withdraw from the CSTO, officially enter into some new partnership programmes with NATO or someone else.... This has not been observed yet, but the probability of this is increasing every day," Bezpalko said.

The expert did not rule out that Yerevan might even agree to deploy the alliance contingent on the country's territory "even if it is 20 people" and to reduce military cooperation with Russia.

"Secondly, Yerevan is trying to blackmail Moscow, to achieve some preferences or actions. Preferences, probably, credit and monetary, and actions, obviously, directed against Azerbaijan at least in the field of diplomacy or in the field that relates to disputed territories.... Now we are likely to observe both tendencies, which are mixed and complement each other," Bezpalko believes.

According to him, Armenia is unlikely to give up its current aspirations, even if Russia gives in to blackmail by providing financial aid favourable to the Armenian side.

"And the leaders in Armenia themselves do not believe in the success of this blackmail. Most likely, it will be possible to simply postpone these decisions for some time," the expert emphasised.