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Armenia: Putin’s CSTO poses a ‘threat’ after freezing membership

A former close ally of Russia said that President Vladimir Putin's NATO-like alliance, far from offering security guarantees, now poses “a threat” to his country.

Armenia recently froze its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OSCE), a coalition of six post-Soviet states, in what is seen as Putin's response to NATO.

The CSTO also includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

According to state media agency Armenpress, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at an event on Wednesday that the bloc “is failing to fulfill its security obligations to Armenia.”

He further said that the CSTO indeed poses “a threat to the security of Armenia and to the future existence, sovereignty and statehood of Armenia.”

Armenia has increasingly withdrawn from the bloc since the start of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. In February In 2023, Pashinyan said: “We are not Russia’s ally in this conflict.”

The latest comments come amid Armenia's broader attempts to reduce its dependence on Russian military support and diversify its security partnerships, Armenian Weekly noted.


Pashinyan and Putin look away from each other.

At the end of 2022, Pashinyan distanced himself from Putin in a group photo.

Contributor/Getty Images



Although Armenia has not yet officially withdrawn from the CSTO, it has been hinting at its intention to leave for months after suffering repeated reprisals against the organization for a year.

Pashinyan first announced in February that he would freeze Armenia's membership after failing to attend numerous CSTO events for months.

Experts had previously told Business Insider that developments within the CSTO had damaged Putin's reputation.

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The alliance is widely seen as an attempt by Putin to consolidate Russia's status as a great power by leading a collective defense bloc modeled on NATO. In practice, however, this has rarely worked.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan have already left the CSTO.

Armenia considers its withdrawal justified.

When Armenia asked for help during clashes with neighboring Azerbaijan last year, Putin refused to send troops – a move that infuriated Pashinyan.

Asked whether Armenia would restore its membership, Pashinyan said on Wednesday that this would only happen if he received substantive answers to the questions he has been asking the bloc for several years, Armenpress reported.

“The longer no answers are heard, the more Armenia distances itself from the CSTO with every minute and second,” he said, according to the source.

When asked whether his country had reached the point of no return with the CSTO, Pashinyan added: “If we have not crossed it yet, then there is a high probability that we will cross it.”