Lavrov: Armenia deliberately ruins relations with Russia

The Armenian side is deliberately leading relations with Russia toward a break, the Russian Foreign Minister said.

According to Sergey Lavrov's interview with Izvestia, Yerevan's mood does not inspire him with optimism.

"The Armenian leadership, frankly speaking, under far-fetched pretexts, distorting the history of the last three and a half years is deliberately leading to the collapse of relations with the Russian Federation, to the defamation of our military personnel who serve at the 102nd military base, to the defamation of our border guards, to the defamation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a whole",

the diplomat said.

The Minister also described the situation with the EU mission in Armenia, which had been in the country for more than a year. Lavrov noted that Norwegian, Canadian and American military personnel will arrive in Armenia soon, so as a result, the EU mission is turning into a NATO mission.

Lavrov also touched upon Armenia's freezing of its participation in the CSTO. He stated that in their rhetoric, the Armenian authorities omit the fact that none other than the organization stood up to defend the interests of Yerevan when Armenia found itself in "difficult situations".