The presence of the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia is the only real guarantee of the country’s sovereignty. The idea that their withdrawal will somehow strengthen the military potential of the republic is dangerous demagoguery. This statement was released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The day before, the head of the ministry, Sergei Lavrov, said that the Armenian leadership, under far-fetched pretexts, distorting the history of the last three years, is deliberately leading to the collapse of relations with the Russian Federation.

On February 29, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan said that the authorities are not discussing the withdrawal of the Russian base from the country, “but believe that the current security architecture does not work.”

Recently, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and members of his government have openly criticized the Kremlin. He was accused of the passivity of Russian peacekeepers during the last Karabakh war. In addition, Armenia expresses doubts about the advisability of membership in the CSTO, a post-Soviet analogue of NATO led by the Russian Federation.