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Extending Russia’s Military Presence in Armenia is Meaningless Measure: Analyst

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit set to take place in Yerevan has become the topic of much discussion lately, said political analyst Sergey Shakaryants at a press conference today, adding that the summit will be directed at regional countries and aims to specify the region’s moods.

Shakaryants also believes that the presidents of CSTO member countries, during the summit, will discuss the coming year’s activities. Speaking on the Medvedev-Sargsyan meeting, Shakaryants said that it’s hard to expect a new level emerging from these meetings — the actual subject of Medvedev’s talks, in the analyst’s opinion, will be to tend to adverse reactions which have resonated among the public in the region.

“That [the negative reactions], of course, are [directed toward] the alleged planned delivery of missile devices to Azerbaijan. The report about [Russia’s military] base [in Armenia] isn’t of such great significance because all the issues related to the base were very thoroughly developed in 1995–97. Simply extending the contract today is a completely meaningless measure,” said Shakaryants. 

Tha analyst also believes that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement will most definitely be on the Sargsyan-Medvedev meeting agenda.

“They will turn their attention [on this issue] since the St. Petersburg meetings left both the Armenian and the Azerbaijani public in uncertainty,” Shakaryants added.