Day: March 7, 2024

Engineers studying the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside are releasing portions of video that confirm the sequence of visible events, but still…

Armenia has said it has informed Russia that its border guards should leave the Yerevan Zvartnots Airport, where they have been stationed since the country’s independence.

On Wednesday, the Secretary of the Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, said they had informed Russia of this in an official letter, contradicting Russian claims that they had not been informed of any change.

‘Armenia has a clear position on this issue, and the Russian Federation was informed about this clear position in an official letter’, Grigoryan said.

On Thursday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated that the Russian side had been informed. 

He said that Russian border guards had been stationed at the airport at independence as Armenia was at the time not able to control the border alone. ‘Now we believe that Armenia is institutionally able to carry out the border guard service alone at Zvartnots Airport’, he said.

The comments came after Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia was not aware of any decisions made regarding the withdrawal of Russian border guards from Zvartnots Airport. ‘No one brought these decisions to us through official channels,’ he said earlier on Wednesday.

Reports of the possible removal of Russian border guards from Zvartnots Airport first emerged in late February.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alen Simonyan, subsequently stated that Russian border guards should leave the airport. 

‘It was proved many times that they did not protect [Armenia’s] borders. What did they do when they came to Nagorno-Karabakh? Escorted the Armenian people out? Was that what they defended? Would they one day escort you and me out of Zvartnots?’, said Simonyan.

‘If one has bad relations with many, it is not the problem of the many’

The decision comes as Armenia’s relations with Russia continue to plummet.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Armenia to ‘decide for themselves’ on their future relations, including their membership in multinational organisations they are both members of.

In February, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the country had ‘frozen’ its participation in the Russia-led security bloc, the CSTO.

Armenian Security Council head Armen Grigoryan responded to Lavrov by stating he ‘would rather say Russia should clarify its position as a CSTO member’.

He said that in discussions with the block since May 2021 ‘we insisted that Armenia has a border with Azerbaijan, the CSTO claimed that it does not have and did not recognise and even did not condemn the occupation of Armenian territories.’

Grigoryan said Armenia was following a policy of diversification in the economy, politics, and security.

He also said that while Armenia was being blamed for ‘ruining Armenia-Russia relations’, it was Russia that was responsible for its deteriorating ties with Armenia and other countries. 

‘If one has bad relations with many, it is not the problem of the many, it is probably the problem of that one,’ Grigoryan said.

Hitting back on Wednesday Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that Armenia could face the same fate as Ukraine.

‘Ukraine was lured into Western networks; they promised a wonderful perspective, painted everything in the best light as we say, and then threw it away’ she said, adding that she would not wish for the same to happen to Armenia.

The post Armenia orders Russian border guards out of Yerevan Airport appeared first on OC Media.

По мнению члена «Грузинской мечты» Ираклия Заркуа, посла Германии следует «срочно» вызвать в МИД в связи с визитом Зураба Адеишвили в Бундестаг. По словам Заркуа, помимо посла Германии, разъяснения по этому вопросу должен дать и посол ЕС. «Мы хотим Европу, потому что думаем, что там есть справедливость, больше защиты прав граждан, надежные гарантии, и как […]

WASHINGTON/STOCKHOLM — Sweden is expected to formally join NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced a complete rethink of its national security policy and the realization the alliance offered the best guarantee of safety.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is in Washington to hand over the final documentation, with the White House saying in a statement ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address that Sweden would join on Thursday.

“Having Sweden as a NATO Ally will make the United States and our Allies even safer,” the statement said.

The Swedish government said separately it would take the formal decision for the country to join NATO on Thursday.

For NATO, the accession of Sweden and Finland – which shares a 1,340 km border with Russia – is the most significant expansion for decades. It is also a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has sought prevent any further strengthening of the alliance.

Sweden will benefit from the alliance’s common defense guarantee under which an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.

“We have to face the world as it is not how we sometimes wish it were,” Kristersson said after Hungary became the last NATO member to ratify Sweden’s accession last week.

Sweden adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces and would be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.

Russia has threatened to take unspecified “political and military-technical counter-measures” in response to Sweden’s move.

While Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.

After World War II, it built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, successive governments have pared back military spending.

As recently as 2021, its defense minister had rejected NATO membership, only for the then-Social Democrat government to apply, alongside neighbor Finland, just a few months later.

While Finland joined last year, Sweden was kept waiting as Turkey and Hungary, which both maintain cordial relations with Russia, delayed ratifying Sweden’s accession.

Turkey approved Sweden’s application in January.

Hungary delayed its move until Kristersson made a goodwill visit to Budapest on Feb. 23, where the two countries agreed a fighter jet deal.