YEREVAN — Russia has completed the withdrawal of its border guards from Armenia’s sole border crossing with Iran, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on Monday.
“Starting today, only the Border Guard Troops of the Republic of Armenia will carry out border control at the Agarak border crossing point on the Armenia-Iran state border,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook. He thanked the Russian border guards for their decades-long service there.
Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly agreed on the withdrawal during talks in Moscow in October. The agreement came just over two months after the Russians left Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport.
Under another agreement reported by Yerevan in October, starting from 2025, Armenian border guards “will also participate in the protection” of their country’s borders with Iran and Turkey together with their Russian colleagues. The latter have for decades been stationed there as part of close Russian-Armenian military ties. Armenian officials have said that Yerevan has no plans yet to remove them.
They have also said that the Russian withdrawal from the Yerevan airport and the Agarak checkpoint will boost Armenia’s sovereignty.
