Russians are “closing” the deal of Association agreement
Yesterday a news agency of Moscow Ria Novosti organized a teleconference between Yerevan, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, during which the secretary-general of the collective security pact Nikolay Bordyuzha made a long speech. The media representatives from Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Russia asked him various questions, which related to the partner states of the CSTO, the terrorism level in Afghanistan, drug business, Ukraine’s cooperation with the EU and the CSTO standpoint in that regard.
We will briefly speak of the questions that related to Armenia. One of the questions related to the deployment of new Russian military hardware to Armenia and whether it was done to keep the balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan, having considered the fact that recently Russia sold a large quantity of armaments to Azerbaijan. As a response to this, Nikolay Bordyuzha said that Russia has always taken into account the balance and said that he had replied to a similar question in Yerevan. “I have said that whenever we are selling armaments to any country and especially to those that are neighboring Armenia we take into account the balance factor,” mentioned Bordyuzha. As of the re-armament of the Russian forces in Armenia, including army 102, the secretary-general of CSTO said that this was an ongoing process and currently activities are being carried out to re-arm these forces.
Let us remember that in June journalists were able to find out the 700 million USD military deal between Azerbaijan and Russia. In the same month, during his visit to Armenia this is how Bordyuzha explained the deal. “Russia is selling weapons to Azerbaijan preserving parity in the region,” he said. Bordyuzha noted that Russia is selling arms to dozens of countries, including non-member states of CSTO. “This business and market is the economy of Russia. Another thing is that first of all, the sale of weapons to non-member states of CSTO should be based on the regional parity.
The sale of weapons to Azerbaijan has been carried out in accordance with this principle.” Bordyuzha’s comments regarding Armenia’s geopolitical and economic choice were also interesting. “As much as I recall you are asking me a question that is already resolved and the leadership of Armenia has made a certain statement to enter the Customs Union and that no document will be signed with the EU for now,” said Bordyuzha when responding to a question whether the signing of a possible document in Vilnius would affect the further ties between Armenia and the CSTO. By the way, let’s also note that on October 2 Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan also stated in Strasbourg that Armenia was going to partake in the Vilnius summit and sign the Association Agreement.
During the teleconference Bordyuzha was reminded of another statement of the Armenian president in Sochi, during which the Armenian president complained of some of the member states of the CSTO and criticized them for their unfriendly attitude to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. “Was this matter discussed within the CSTO?” asked an Armenian journalist but Mr. Bordyuzha gave quite a mild response to the question. “There was neither criticism nor an unfriendly attitude… This is a normal practice of states who are within a military political alliance. Yes, the Armenian president raised his concerns that some of the activities of the member states contradict the Armenia standpoint. But I repeat this is a friendly criticism. Trust me, I am always present at those meetings and such matters originate from all member states and they are always discussed,” said Bordyuzha.
By Aram Sargsyan
