RF Foreign Ministry: EU mission in Armenia harms the entire South Caucsus

«The European Union’s mission in Armenia is engaged in provocative activities, wages propaganda against Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran and does not contribute to the security in the region», - said Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Mikhail Galuzin.

 In his words, the European mission in Armenia is openly conducting provocative activities, wages propaganda against Russia, as well as creates among the Armenian population a false image of the EU as a «source of security and prosperity» of Armenia. The EU mission works not only against Russia in the region, but also against Armenia’s other neighbors.

EU mission’s impact on South Caucasus

 Igor Korotchenko, a political analyst and Director of the Caspian Institute of Strategic Studies (Russia), told the correspondent of the Vestnik Kavkaza what effect the EU’s ‘observation’ mission has on the South Caucasus region.

 «From the very first days after appearance on the territory of Armenia it posed a threat and inflicted damage on all neighboring counties. The backbone of this mission consists of career intelligence officers of European countries under diplomatic cover. They are not diplomats, but exactly are representatives of special services who use a diplomatic passport to camouflage intelligence gathering and subversive activities. All this time they have been collecting intelligence data and actively created their agent network in Armenia», he said in the first place.

 «In the past year and the half negative assessments of the EU mission on the territory of Armenia were given by a number of high-ranking Russian officials. Mikhail Galuzin is a Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia in charge of our relations with the South Caucasus states, and if he once again draws attention to the subversive and negative nature of the said mission, it demonstrates serious concern of Moscow based on diversified information about what the above-mentioned EU representatives are doing and how they operate», Igor Korotchenko underscored.

 «Generally speaking, work is underway to build an anti-Russian beachhead in Armenia through fomenting anti-Russian moods and pushing Yerevan to the decision to withdraw from the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization). Armenia has already «frozen» relations with the CSTO, it is probably an irreversible step already. Then a break of allied relationship with Russia will follow and prior to that – ousting all components of Russian presence on the Armenian territory. The process of withdrawal of Russian border guards has already started, and then, probably, time will come for the Russian military base in Gyumri», the political analyst assumed.

 «It is worth noting that the activities of the EU mission are detrimental to all countries in the region. Intelligence presence scales up into the military presence of the European Union in Armenia, which we understand perfectly. Actually, things are coming for NATO troops to enter into Armenia. That is to say that Armenia is to be also turned into a pro-NATO beachhead so that it could further be used to destabilize the situation, undermine stability in the region and to stir up all sorts of parallel provocations», Igor Korotchenko added.

Why does Armenia need an EU mission?

 Igor Korotchenko stressed that neither the population of Armenia nor even the state will get any real benefits from deployment of European «observers». «As a state, Armenia will only get aggravation of relations with the neighbors. The very presence of the mission in the republic is attributed to the commitments of the Armenian ruling elite and Hikol Pashinyan himself to western countries. According to the information available to special services, the current Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoyan is a stooge of the CIA. Naturally, Grigoyan is pushing through those decisions that are meant to meet obligations to Washington. There are many people like that around Pashinyan. For instance, Minister of Defence Suren Papikyan is a man with very extensive connections in the West», he said.

 «The majority of key figures in Hikol Pashinyan’s team are people who one way or another are close to the non-governmental organizations financed by western countries and maintain trust-based contacts with the representatives of the USA working at the American embassy in Yerevan. What is now happening with Armenia is the result of systemic hard work for many years. Armenia that had always shouted about the great, eternal, fraternal friendship with Russia is now showing a malicious anti-Russian scowl. In the first place it was determined by the selection and placement of own people in the Armenian elites. So far the trends are negative and it is hard to say whether it will be possible to reverse them. It is necessary to proceed based on the existing realities», Igor Korotchenko concluded.