Epress.am News from Armenia
Alexey Malashenko, political analyst and chair of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Center for Religion, Society, and Security in Moscow, considers the widespread public and government dissatisfaction in Armenia with the sales of Russian weapons to Azerbaijan justified, 168 Zham newspaper writes. However, according to Malashenko, Russia is under no obligation not to sell arms to any specific country, given that the arms sales to the NKR conflicting side is the essence of Russia’s foreign policy and brings significant profit to the country.
“Russia has always sold weapons to the conflicting sides, trying to thereby not to give preference to any of the sides and, at the same time, making it clear that the victory of one of the countries is not in its interest. Russia here is guided by its national interests, which lie in preserving and, why not, strengthening the Russian presence in the South Caucasus,” the analyst is quoted as saying.
Stepan Grigoryan, chair of the Board of the Yerevan-based Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation, for his part, tried to explain in a conversation with 168 Zham why the Kremlin won’t pay attention to the Armenian discontent, and how Russia somehow manages to further militarize the already heavily militarized region. Grigoryan said he was surprised by Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s indignation over the arms sales, considering that Sargsyan’s policy also contributes to the high level of militarization in the region and the expansion of the heavy Russian presence in the South Caucasus, and particularly in Armenia.
“What does Armenia do? Armenia signs any and all military cooperation agreement put forward by Russia. I’m talking about the joint air defense system, the joint Armenian-Russian troops, etc,” Grigoryan said.
According to Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan are equally important for Russia, because Russia “needs not individual countries, but the entire South Caucasus.” Moscow, Felgenhauer said, believes that Armenia and Azerbaijan have equal opportunities for manoeuvring, which have significantly decreased for Armenia due to the country having abandoned all western programs in favor of Russian initiatives; thus, Russia manages to mitigate Armenia’s discontent over the arms sales through concessions in other areas.
“Azerbaijan is currently a very important country for Russia, and so it is taking certain measures to court Azerbaijan. It should also be understandable that to change things would currently be impossible,” Felgenhauer noted.