Armenia wants to leave Putin's security alliance

(Patria) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced yesterday his intention to withdraw his country from the security alliance of several former Soviet states dominated by Russia.

Pashinyan said that his government has yet to decide when it will leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a group that includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.

This decision comes at a time of heightened tensions between Armenia and Russia, once close allies.

Armenia had already frozen its membership in the alliance, canceled participation in joint military exercises and summits.

Russian authorities have not commented on the latest announcement from Armenia, the Associated Press reports.

Incidentally, relations between the two countries became strained after Azerbaijan launched a lightning military campaign last September to seize the Nagorno-Karabakh region and end three decades of separatist rule by ethnic Armenians.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeeping forces, which were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after an earlier conflict in 2020, of failing to stop Azerbaijan's attack.

Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, rejected the accusations, claiming its troops had no mandate to intervene.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, was furious over Pashinyan's efforts to deepen ties with the West and steer his country away from the Moscow-dominated alliance.

Russia was unsettled by Armenia's decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Pashinyan makes this move as he faces a wave of large protests. Demonstrators are demanding his resignation over his government's decision to hand over four border villages to Azerbaijan.