Refusing to hold CSTO drills, Armenia 'creates difficulties for allies,' says Russia

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Armenia's refusal to host military exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) this year creates "certain difficulties," Russia said on Thursday.

Countries in the alliance are now forced to change previously agreed upon defense services plans, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing in Moscow.

"As far as we know, the relevant work (on the change of plans) is being conducted in the CSTO, we believe that optimal solutions will be found on organizing this year's effective training of CSTO peacekeepers," she said.

The spokeswoman noted that work was ongoing to settle the situation in the Lachin corridor, a road that connects Armenia to the Karabakh region and where tensions are said to have ignited recently due to protests over what Azerbaijan says is illegal exploitation of natural resources by Armenia.

Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan had been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, during 44 days of heavy fighting, Azerbaijan liberated a significant part of Karabakh, and a Russian-brokered peace agreement was subsequently signed, considered a triumph in Baku.

Armenia has called on Russian peacekeepers, deployed to monitor the peace deal, to unblock the road.

"It is necessary to find a solution acceptable to all parties," said Zakharova, adding that at the moment, humanitarian aid convoys were passing through the humanitarian corridor.

She stressed the unacceptability of the public attacks and provocations against Russian peacekeepers in the region, underlining that they were guarantors of peace and that such actions risked significantly harming the process of normalization between the two Caucasus nations.

Commenting on a France-sponsored draft resolution in the UN Security Council on the situation in the corridor, Zakharova said Moscow was constructive, but that "the French authors ignored most of the Russian proposals."

Specifically, Paris refused to mention the trilateral statements of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia as the basis for the Karabakh settlement, she noted.

"In any case, we are determined to engage in substantive work to resolve the situation around the Lachin corridor, not in populism," she stressed.

Zakharova said Moscow supports the work of the Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on border delimitation.

Russia, for its part, is ready to provide the documents it has on the matter, including maps, she added.

On the work of a trilateral working group co-chaired by the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, to unblock transport communications in the Lachin corridor, the official said additional efforts were needed to "turn it into practice."

Zakharova also criticized "absurd" Armenian statements claiming that Russia's presence in the region created a threat for Yerevan.

"For decades, our military and border guards have been contributing to the security of Armenia, preserving its borders.

"This is an objective reality that cannot be denied, despite the fact that, earlier, the current Armenian leadership publicly stated that Russia's presence corresponds to the national interests of the republic," she said.

Those calling to oust the Russian military from Armenia "clearly do not realize the real consequences of such a step," added Zakharova.

- Nord Stream gas pipelines

On explosions that cut off natural gas flowing from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream I and II pipelines, Zakharova said Sweden's reluctance to cooperate with Russia on an investigation into the cause of the blasts was puzzling.

According to Zakharova, the reason for the persistent unwillingness of Sweden and neighboring countries to interact with Russia on the Baltic Sea pipelines lies in their "obvious desire to conceal the truth."

"The concealment of established facts irrefutably testifies to the obvious -- the Swedish authorities are hiding something," she stressed.

Zakharova also accused the UN General Secretariat of double standards regarding the situation in Ukraine.

While "not finding the strength" to condemn Western arms supplies to Kyiv, it addresses accusations of escalation on Moscow, she said, asserting that the UN wanted to achieve peace in Ukraine through non-consensus and anti-Russian resolutions.

The spokeswoman condemned a recent decision by French authorities on new military supplies to Ukraine, calling it "another gesture that provokes further escalation and, as a result, new victims of the conflict."

"The course pursued by Paris towards thoughtlessly pumping Ukraine with weapons has exposed the cynicism and duplicity of statements about the desire to avoid escalation of the conflict, the need to maintain dialogue with Russia and a serious attitude to Moscow's demands for security guarantees."

Zakharova also slammed a recent crackdown by Kyiv on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, referring to recent raids by security on church premises that aimed for "the liquidation of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

"Using the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as they call it, artificially created in 2018, a real raider, bandit seizure of the shrines of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being carried out, threats of physical violence against its clergy are being received," she said.

The spokeswoman stressed that such actions hurt the religious sentiments of millions of believers.

Zakharova also said that the work continues on preparations for a meeting of the Russian, Turkish, and Syrian foreign ministers.