Russia hoping cooperation with Armenia within CSTO will be fully restored

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on the statement about Armenia’s freezing of its CSTO membership: “Not long ago, they announced that it’s the CSTO that left the territory of Armenia; then they said they had frozen their membership. It would be nice to understand who is where. Not only should there be a meaning behind every statement, but also responsibility, if it was uttered by an official. Yerevan is de jure a full member of the CSTO and maintains both rights and obligations.

In fact, now the Armenian government has taken the path of leaving such cooperation, which, we think, contradicts the interests of the Armenian people. We hope that based on the security of Armenia and, in general, the entire region, our cooperation with Armenia within the CSTO will be fully restored. Punning can have bad consequences.”