Billionaire and former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, sentenced in Baku to 20 years in prison, rejected the legal force of the ruling and dropped his appeal. His family explained that this decision stemmed from the fact that, in their view, the trial was a "staged performance" rather than a proper trial: the hearings were held behind closed doors, without access to independent observers, and the prosecution's motions were ignored. The full text of the verdict was also not released.
Russia reminds again about Armenia's debt to the CSTO
The CSTO member countries "may consider different scenarios" if Armenia does not pay its contribution to the organization's budget by the end of 2025. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Pankin.
According to him, Moscow "hopes for the best in the situation of freezing Yerevan's membership, and it did not announce its withdrawal from the CSTO."
On February 23, 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the freezing of Armenia's participation in the CSTO. On May 8, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported that the country would not participate in financing the bloc. In early 2025, a report by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Armenia noted that the country does not intend to unfreeze its membership in the organization.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is a regional international organization created to "protect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity" of its member states. The bloc includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
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