After being recalled to Moscow last month, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, returned to his post in Yerevan on Monday.
The Russian foreign ministry recalled Kopyrkin from Yerevan on May 24 after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly claimed that two member-states of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization were overtly supporting Azerbaijan during the 2020 Artsakh War. From Pashinyan’s statements at the time, it could be inferred that he was referring to Russia and Belarus.
Galuzin, on Thursday, told reporters that Kopyrkin would return to his post, adding that the recall “for consultations” was a routine diplomatic step taken by various countries.
“There is no issue of breaking ties with Yerevan,” Galuzin said last week. “Calling the ambassador from a post for consultations is a common diplomatic practice.”
Galuzin also categorically rejected that relations between Yerevan and Moscow had declined. “There is absolutely no such thing,” he said last week.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister was more critical of Yerevan’s recent advancement of relations with the West, telling the Tass news agency that the Armenian government’s decision to distance itself from the CSTO had adversely impacted plans to create a security zone in the region.
Galuzin told Tass last week that Yerevan’s “thoughtless steps” may make the joint efforts of Moscow and the CSTO to create a single defense system impossible, blaming Yerevan for advancing relations with the West.
“Yerevan is taking advantage of the current situation when the West is showing great interest in strengthening cooperation, including in the security sector,” Galuzin said in the interview.
“However, thoughtless decisions that will provide Westerners with full access to national databases, sensitive information for the country’s security, not only threaten the sovereignty of the state, but may also make it objectively impossible to return to the joint efforts of Russia and other CSTO allies toward building a single defense area,” Galuzin emphasized, warning Armenia against leaving the Russia-led security bloc.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced earlier this spring that Armenia would freeze its members to the CSTO. Armenia’s foreign and defense ministers have opted to not attend recent ministerial summits of the organization.