Anti-government protests, increasing dissatisfaction with the Armenian leadership and worrisome relations with Russia: International press recapped

Anti-government protests continue in Armenia. The organizers succeed most importantly in keeping emotions strong for further protests and strikes, the Telegram Channel Rybar writes in a post.

“There will be no movement without people, but there are people, and their number is not decreasing,” the channel writes.

Vlast wrote that public dissatisfaction about the actions of the present Armenian leadership is constantly increasing. Referring to Russian-Armenian relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the impact of the war in Ukraine on it, Vlast noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised the question of creating new trade and logistics routes that would connect Europe and China, bypassing Russia.

After the capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, the “Middle Corridor” project, in which Turkey and Azerbaijan are particularly interested, opens a route for Russia to Iran and South Asia.

As a result, “Russia refused to support Armenia, even though it was the guarantor of its security for about 30 years. Armenia had to give up the disputed territories because none of the militarily stronger countries considered it necessary to take its side. Even the EU, about which Pashinyan is talking more and more often, did not do anything other than making the usual, harsh diplomatic statements about Azerbaijan. This, among other things, is due to the Azerbaijani lobby in Europe, to which Ilham Aliyev’s regime has allocated several billion dollars,” reads the article.

It was noted that another problem for Armenia is that, despite the crisis in political relations with Russia, it cannot do away with its bilateral economic partnership. The previous year was a record one in the performance of bilateral trade between the countries, which was facilitated by the re-export of goods under sanctions.

Member of the State Duma Konstantin Zatulin noted that the recent developments regarding relations between Russia and Armenia cause deep concern and worries.