The West is spying against Russia in Armenia. What will be Moscow’s response?

The RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not exclude, that the EU missions in the territory of Armenia may be collecting intelligence information both about Russia and about Armenia’s neighbor states. The officials emphasize that the West intends to secure its positions in Armenia against Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Western threats against Russia in Armenia

Igor Korotchenko, a political analyst and the General Director of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia), in his interview to Vestnik Kavkaza described the threats for Russian security created by western intelligence operating in Armenia under the cover of the EU’s «monitoring» mission.

«Indeed, the EU mission deployed in Armenia is staffed not with diplomats, but with professional intelligence officers under diplomatic cover. Practically all the leading European intelligence agencies are represented there, including the French DGSE and German BND. Their operations are actively scaled up: they are engaged not only in monitoring and collecting intelligence information, but also in recruiting sources among Armenian citizens. The EU mission is increasing the number of representative offices across the Armenian territory, and practically each of these offices is an intelligence station», he said first of all.

«The tasks of foreign intelligence in the territory of Armenia include working against Russia as NATO’s enemy. Any kind of information is collected including the information about the mode of operation of Russian military facilities in Armenia, the conditions and potential changes of their status and their territorial locations. The personal profiles of Russian officers and commanders are being clarified along with the information about the weapons, military machinery and the nature of local governments relations. In this context, Mikhail Galuzin’s words mean the concern of official Moscow about the goals and the nature of the EU mission’s tasks in the prejudice of the overall security of the Russian Federation», Igor Korotchenko noted.

«Taking into account that we can see more and more military people with diplomatic passports among the EU observers, there is a risk of reformatting the monitoring-police mission into a NATO’s military mission practically any time. It will be synchronized with further entanglement of Yerevan into military and military-technical cooperation with the leading western countries. We know that Suren Papikyan, the head of Armenian Defense Ministry, is practically neck-deep in foreign visits meeting with the Defense Ministers of NATO member states and visiting defense enterprises in Europe to sign contracts for supplying modern offensive arms to Armenia. Yerevan consistently and obediently is marching in lockstep of Western interests», the political analyst emphasized.

How can Russia protect itself against Western threats in Armenia?

Igor Korotchenko assured that Russia is providing for protection of its military forces against foreign intelligence on an on-going basis. «Secret security measures are being undertaken irrespective of the level of activity of foreign intelligence agencies in the territory of Armenia. Special plans are devised, there is a procedure for handling top-secret documents at the Russian military base, certain measures are undertaken to neutralize technical reconnaissance equipment of foreign intelligence agencies. All these comprehensive measures are mandatory in accordance with the internal instructions and orders of the RF Ministry of Defense», he explained.

«Of course, we need to improve our level of alert with respect to Armenia, we can no longer consider this country to be our friend. Often it behaves as a Russian enemy with hostile citizens. We should improve our readiness for various negative scenarios and devise a plan for mitigating their consequences for the Russian Federation in case Armenia brings them into life. The forecasts with respect to Armenia are not positive: we cannot slow down the process of Yerevan falling into the arms of NATO. This process becomes more and more open, more and more intensified. Previously, Yerevan tried to abide by at least some norms of decent behaviour, but now all of them thrown aside and the ecstatic merge of Armenia with NATO takes absolutely unashamed and blatant form», Igor Korotchenko pointed out.

«It is important to understand that the signals Moscow is sending to Yerevan are not really seen by anyone there. The policy is not adjusted. In this context, political, financial and economic enforcement actions will be required at some point. At the same time, we should keep in mind that there are business facilities in Armenia owned by Russian legal entities. If Russian imposes sanctions or other restrictions on Armenia, îit may cause hostile actions of Armenian authorities against Russian business in the territory of the country. Hence, the situation has complicated multi-tier character. So far, we can only say that the soft power elements Moscow tried to use in order to maintain its positions in Armenia turned out inefficient», the political analyst stated.

«Currently there is a need of revising the entire set of Russian politics with respect to Yerevan, to base it on a more pragmatic, firm resolute program of protecting Russian interests and priorities. These efforts will require adequate solutions in the HR sphere, and not only there. Those who defined and implemented the soft power policy of Russia towards Armenia cannot currently present any impressive achievements. But I want to say that political will and professionals are capable of achieving the result. The main thing is to try (at least) to change that extremely unpleasant trend that has been developing in Armenia over the recent years», he concluded.