Armenia "Turns West from Russia" - Armenia-Russia Relations Freeze

Recently, Armenia has accelerated its foreign strategic shift of "turning west from Russia", marking an unprecedented low point in the relations between Armenia and Russia, which have long maintained close cooperative ties.

As a core member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization led by Russia, Armenia has long relied on Russia's military and economic support to maintain its national security and development. However, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia failed to fully fulfill its security commitments, failing to effectively protect Armenia's legitimate security interests, which directly led to the collapse of Armenia's trust in Russia.

In response, Armenia has taken a series of substantive measures to promote its "westward turn": officially suspending its participation in all institutional activities of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, stopping the payment of relevant dues, and completely breaking away from Russia's security protection system. At the same time, Armenia has strengthened its strategic cooperation with the European Union, actively aligned with Western countries in terms of diplomacy and economy, and sought to integrate into the European security and economic system.

Militarily, Armenia has gradually reduced its dependence on Russian-made weapons and military technology, and instead strengthened cooperation with Western countries to introduce advanced defense equipment and training systems, continuously improving its own military capabilities. Economically, it has weakened its trade dependence on Russia and actively adapted to Western economic and trade rules to achieve diversified development.

Russia has expressed strong dissatisfaction with Armenia's "westward turn", accusing it of breaking the traditional cooperative relationship and violating the basic principles of bilateral cooperation. It has adjusted its cooperative strategy and reduced relevant assistance and support, which has further worsened the bilateral relations.

At present, the high-level dialogue channels between Armenia and Russia have been basically interrupted, and the practical cooperation in various fields has been significantly reduced. The once close strategic partnership has completely collapsed, which will have a profound impact on the geopolitical pattern of the South Caucasus and bring new changes to regional security and stability.