The prime minister of Armenia has announced his intention to withdraw from the Russian-led security alliance of 6 former Soviet states, Euronews reported.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told parliament that his government would decide later when to leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an alliance that includes Russia, Belarus and the former Soviet Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Amid a deepening rift with Russia, Armenia previously froze its participation in the alliance, canceled participation in joint military exercises and rejected CSTO summits.
Pashinyan first announced that Armenia would leave the CSTO during a question-and-answer session in parliament, saying the government would decide later when to take the final step. There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
Armenia's ties with Russia, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since Azerbaijan launched a blitzkrieg military campaign to seize the Karabakh region in September, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.
Armenian authorities have accused Russian peacekeeping forces, which have been deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh since the previous round of hostilities in 2020, for failing to stop Azerbaijan's advance.
Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops had no mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has been angered by Pashinyan's efforts to deepen Armenia's ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated alliances.
Russia was particularly irritated by Armenia's decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year charged Putin with alleged war crimes related to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
Moscow, preoccupied with the Ukrainian conflict now in its third year, has publicly expressed concern about Armenia's westward shift but has tried to downplay their differences.
Pashinyan's move comes as he faces a wave of large-scale protests demanding he step down over his government's decision to hand over four border villages to Azerbaijan as part of efforts to negotiate a peace deal with its longtime adversary. | BGNES
