Russian expert: Neither France nor Iran to fight for Armenia

Director of the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov has said that neither France nor Iran will fight for Armenia.

“We see that Russian-Armenian relations are now undergoing a certain strength test. Both sides had claims against each other, partly fair, partly far-fetched. The question is that in conditions of aggravation, it is, of course, better to have good relations with an ally than bad ones,” Pukhov stated in an interview with the Armenian media, Caliber.Az reports.

"Therefore, Armenia with its current multi-vector agenda is in a very difficult position. In case of a real resumption of hostilities, it is quite obvious that France will not come to the rescue, and Iran, being in a difficult position, with the expiration of political statements will not be able or willing to help in any way. Also considering that the Americans have a huge number of problems of their own and won't be able to help either.

You see, air defence must work in a complex, and air defence systems must be well-equipped. At the moment, Armenia has a scattered, focal air defence system, it is extremely limited, and I would venture to guess that the Turks and Azerbaijanis have long known most of the Armenian air defence positions. Therefore, in case of real hostilities, it may suffer, because it is very degraded. Therefore, the flight of Turkish UAVs near the borders of Armenia should rather be considered as some element of political pressure.

Russia has its own limited air defence system to protect its military bases in Armenia. And, as you know, once Russia gave its air defence systems, which Armenians in one of the parades repainted in their colours and rolled around, trying to mislead Azerbaijan that they allegedly have their own BUK systems, but they were Russian," Pukhov said.