With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on 12 June that the country will formally leave the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance that Armenia has been part of since 1994.
Withdrawing from CSTO has been speculated about for years, but the Armenian government took small steps to get here. Armenia's CSTO membership has also been one of the biggest reasons Western countries have distanced themselves from getting too involved in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
After de facto freezing Yerevan's participation in the organisation since the beginning of the year, Pashinyan and his government have decided to formalise Yerevan's exit from the CSTO, arguing that the alliance has failed to comply with its contractual obligations to assist Armenia militarily during Azerbaijan's multiple invasions into the sovereign territory of Armenia during the past few years. Earlier, Pashinyan also noted that of the CSTO member states, at least two directly supported Baku in its military aggressions against Armenia.
The Kremlin, in its turn, called upon the authorities in Yerevan to name the two CSTO member states that allegedly allied with Azerbaijan against Armenia. Moscow also denounced Yerevan's decision to no longer contribute to the alliance, including financially.
After announcing Armenia’s formal withdrawal from the CSTO, Pashinyan revealed that Armenia is suspending diplomatic relations with its formal ally Belarus. Criticising Minsk for assisting Baku militarily and diplomatically, Pashinyan claimed that neither he nor any other Armenian official would visit Belarus as long as Alexander Lukashenka remains president.
Soon after Pashinyan’s speech, Yerevan recalled its ambassador from Minsk, and Minsk followed suit, recalling its ambassador from Yerevan. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s exiled opposition leader, who has been largely silent on matters relating to Armenia, has welcomed Pashinyan’s decision with a post on X.