Moscow Analyst Worried About Russian Military Base in Armenia

In the event of renewed hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia will take a neutral position, said Director of the Center for Public Policy Research Vladimir Yevseyev in an interview with Day.az.

At the same time, he recalled that Russia has a military base in the Armenian city of Gyumri and has certain obligations to protect Armenia, but “it has no obligation to protect Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“What worries me more is the fact that there are quite a large number of servicemen of Armenian origin serving at the Russian military base in Gyumri. It will be quite difficult to predict, much less control, the behavior of the Russian troops in case of renewed hostilities in Karabakh. Knowing and understanding all this, Moscow from the outset will try to clearly stick to neutrality. But, again, certain forces in Armenia will try to draw Russia into armed conflict. I very much hope that Moscow will oppose such attempts. Because it doesn’t correspond to its national interests,” he summed up.