Under Pashinyan's leadership, Armenia took Ukraine's path Retired Russian general says

Retired Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov, in his interview with Armenian media, commented on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that Armenia cannot develop defence cooperation only with Russia.

"Everything that the West is doing is going to be used against the security of the Caucasus and Russia. The West won't cooperate, it's just that free cheese only comes in a mousetrap. All the events of recent times and decades have shown that the West has a specific and clear goal," he said, per Caliber.Az.

"Armenia is facing a foreign policy task. And the West will fulfil this task by supplying Armenia with not the latest, but still good weapons. And with the help of these weapons it will develop Armenia, together with Georgia, into its stronghold in the Caucasus. This is going to lead to a sharp deterioration in relations with Russia and is going to jeopardise the security of the Caucasus region.

Absolutely nothing good will come out of this. The prime minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, is making all this up to bring Armenia fully under the aegis of NATO. Rumours that Armenia needs other weapons, that Russia is giving little, Russia is giving weapons to Azerbaijan, these are all such tricks, we have already gone through this with the Baltic states and Ukraine. All this is said to take Armenia out of the CSTO zone and bring it under the NATO umbrella. And it will fulfil the tasks set by Brussels under NATO's aegis.

Armenia under Pashinyan's leadership has chosen the path of Ukraine and the Baltic states, with all the consequences that this entails. And these consequences will manifest themselves at some point. Such games of moving the country from one security zone to another are very risky. They end badly for those who do them," Reshetnikov said.