Page 19 - bne_newspaper_November_02_2018

Eurasia
November 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Russia accuses US of attempt at shifting Armenia’s Moscow
bne IntelliNews
Russia has accused the US of making a barely disguised attempt at persuading Armenia to shift its allegiances away from its traditional ally Moscow.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said on October 29 that White House National Security Advisor John Bolton's comments during his visit to Yerevan last week amounted to him "demand- ing openly that Armenia renounce historical pat- terns in its international relations and [he] hardly bothered to conceal the fact that this implied Armenia’s traditional friendship with Russia".
"Naturally, he did not forget to advertise US weap- ons that Armenia should buy instead of Russian weapons," the statement went on.
Ex-Soviet state Armenia is a long-time ally of Russia, but relations between Yerevan and Mos- cow have been placed in question since Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian led a “people’s revolution” in the spring that toppled a govern- ment of the small, impoverished nation that was regarded as close to Moscow.
Russia has military bases in Armenia which are crucial to its diminutive ally given its stand-off with far larger neighbour Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
Bolton is an uber-hawk who, following visits
to Russia and Azerbaijan, visited Armenia and took on the tricky issue of what the US attempt at strangling the Iranian economy could mean to Yerevan, especially should the Armenians strictly follow the sanctions directed at Tehran by Washington.
John Bolton's been making waves in the South Caucasus.
Armenia – enduring an “unsplendid isolation” – has greatly constrained trade options. It does not have diplomatic relations with neighbours Azer- baijan and Turkey and, with Moscow as its watch- ful strategic ally, it has to be careful in its relation- ship with neighbouring Georgia, which still has tense relations with Russia since the two nations’ brief 2008 war.
Bolton pledged that Washington would continue to support a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Baku and Yerevan over the Nagorno- Karabakh region.
He also informed Armenia that the Trump ad- ministration wanted to explore possible weapons sales to Yerevan that would not violate US Con- gress restrictions on such sales to Azerbaijan and Armenia put in place given the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, largely frozen. In his eyes, US military hardware was better than what Russia had to offer, he added.
While chairing peace talks over Nagorno-Kara- bakh, Russia also makes arms sales to both sides.
Asked by reporters on October 27 whether Yerevan would set out to acquire military equipment from the US, Pashinian said: "The [Armenian] govern- ment is not constrained by anything. If there is an offer from the United States that is good for us, we will discuss it."
Writing on his Facebook page on October 25, Pashinian said that his talks with Bolton were held in “an extremely positive atmosphere”.
"I think there is a real opportunity to bring Armenia-U.S. relations to a new level. And we