Baku. 21 November. REPORT.AZ/ The CSTO confrontation between Yerevan and Minsk is a diplomatic confrontation between Yerevan and Moscow, since the Kremlin cannot publicly criticize Armenia, Russian expert and political analyst, General Director of the Russian Institute of Political Studies Sergey Markov told Report commenting on the statements of acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and the response of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus.
"What is happening between Armenia and Belarus through the Collective Security Treaty Organization is a proxy war, speaking the language of modern theory. It seems to me that the confrontation between the leadership of Armenia and Belarus is such a proxy, a diplomatic confrontation between the leaderships of Russia and Armenia”, Markov said.
According to him, the Russian leadership is extremely dissatisfied with Pashinyan's actions that clearly contradict Armenia's obligations within the CSTO.
"At the same time, Pashinyan is telling a lie: he gave the order to arrest the CSTO Secretary General, tried to conceal it, shift the blame on others, and then the wiretapping was published, proving that he had given the order. In addition, he built its government entirely of 'grant-eaters' , that is, those receive American grants for many years. As far as I understand, there are serious suspicions that he is simply a US agent and is pursuing a destructive policy to undermine the CSTO," the Russian expert added.
The political analyst believes that one of the goals pursued by Nikol Pashinyan and the American special services behind him is to create a space of a public conflict between Russia and Armenia so that to create a negative attitude to Russia among Armenian population.
Nikol Pashinyan will not have any opportunities to undermine the CSTO from the inside.In general, in the future there may even be a question of excluding Armenia from the CSTO.
"This is such a tricky combination. To get away from such a tricky combination, as I understand, Belarus acts in the role of Russia in order to formulate such things that the Russian leadership is not always ready to say," said Markov.
According to him, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko only calls things by their names, which the Russian leadership does not do for diplomatic reasons.
“Nikol Pashinyan will not have any opportunities to undermine the CSTO from the inside.In general, Armenia may even be excluded from the CSTO”, the expert added.
Speaking about the upcoming election of the CSTO Secretary General in December of this year, the political scientist stressed that if the structure’s secretary’s place remains vacant, this will affect the organization’s viability.
"Russia, of course, does not want this to happen. Russia has a replacement solution if the name of the new Secretary General is not announced, then simply in this case, the authority will be transferred to the Russian Ministry of Defense," Markov said.