Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergey Shoigu recently confirmed that Armenia has undertaken a series of anti-Russian actions under the rule of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The latter responded by predictably denying any such intentions, but it’s evident to all objective observers that he’s inflicted tremendous damage to Russian interests. The present piece will detail five of the ways in which Pashinyan has done so before briefly analyzing the significance of these moves:
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1. Giving Zelensky A Platform To Threaten Russia
One of the examples that Shoigu listed was Pashinyan hosting Zelensky earlier in the month as part of a multilateral European event, during which time the Ukrainian leader threatened to attack the Victory Day parade in Moscow. While Pashinyan might not have known exactly what Zelensky was going to say, it was obvious that he’d exploit this platform to threaten Russia in one way or another, so he at minimum passively facilitated this high-profile anti-Russian action knowing fully well what would happen.
2. Moving Forward With Plans To Join The EU
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk earlier warned about the economic consequences of Pashinyan advancing his plans for Armenia to join the EU due to this being incompatible with its membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. This arrangement benefits Armenia much more than it does Russia, but it’s nevertheless mutually beneficial for both, yet it might soon end if he doesn’t drop these plans. Some Russian business would therefore suffer immense losses.
3. Refusing To Compromise On Karabakh
Russia wanted to broker a deal on Karabakh that would ensure its Armenian residents’ linguistic rights at minimum and their political autonomy at maximum, but its efforts were foiled by Pashinyan refusing to compromise on this issue, thus provoking Azerbaijan to settle the conflict by force. That outcome neutralized Russia’s influence in Karabakh and even in Armenia itself to a degree upon him blaming it for this fiasco. The regional chessboard would look altogether different had Pashinyan listened to Putin.
4. Freezing Armenia’s CSTO Membership
The aforesaid anti-Russian (and, in both the political and ethno-national sense, anti-Armenian) action led to Pashinyan freezing Armenia’s CSTO membership on the pretext that Putin hung his country out to dry despite Russia only being obligated to defend Armenia’s existence, not its control over Karabakh. That move set into motion NATO’s clandestine expansion to Armenia, which in turn accelerated Azerbaijan’s shadow membership in the bloc, as the West began to replace Russia’s role in the South Caucasus.
5. Facilitating NATO’s New Military Logistics Corridor
The last two anti-Russian actions culminated in the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), which is a trade corridor with a dual NATO military logistics role. Pashinyan agreed in November 2020 to allow Russia to guard this same corridor in southern Armenia but then replaced it with the US so that the Kremlin can’t monitor shipments across it. This represents Russia’s greatest geostrategic setback in decades and correspondingly the Neo-Reagan Doctrine’s greatest success.
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Pashinyan is by far the most anti-Russian leader to emerge from the former Soviet Union behind Zelensky and Saakashvili. He’s dangerously following in their footsteps by recklessly carrying out a series of anti-Russian actions throughout his years in power. Just like those two learned their lesson the hard way, even though Zelensky remains obstinate and still refuses to sue for peace like Saakashvili before him did, so too will Pashinyan in one way or another even it’s only presiding over Armenia’s economic collapse.
