YEREVAN — Russia has accused the United States of pushing Armenia to commit “national suicide” by “stimulating the activity of pro-Western structures” in the country and “trying to accelerate its adoption of a pro-Western foreign policy.”
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on Thursday that in doing so Washington is “using methods tested in Ukraine and Moldova.”
“There is a task to give a sustainable anti-Russian direction to the public and political processes in Armenia. To this end, Washington intends to carry out a long-term information and propaganda campaign that, among other things, is aimed at discrediting Yerevan’s prospects for cooperation with Russia, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and spreading reports about “pressure” on Armenian migrant workers in Russia,” the SVR claimed, as quoted by Russian media.
Relations between Armenia and Russia have been deteriorating since 2022 when Yerevan accused Moscow of failing to honor its commitment to defend Armenia’s borders after a series of cross-border incursions by Azerbaijan.
It was then that Armenia invited a European border-monitoring mission, a move that notably angered Moscow.