Russia recalled its ambassador to Armenia for consultations on May 24 amid a continuing deterioration of relations between the two longtime allies.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin was "summoned to Moscow for consultations" but gave no reason for the move.
The Armenian government did not immediately react to the decision, which came two days after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed that two member states of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) helped Azerbaijan prepare for the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is believed that Pashinian was referring to Russia and Belarus.
Zakharova on May 23 challenged Pashinian to name the countries.
She also said that Russia repeatedly tried to stop the 2020 war, pointing to Pashinian's rejection in October 2020 of a cease-fire agreement brokered by Moscow and accepted by Azerbaijan. Armenia suffered more territorial losses before Pashinian agreed to another Russian-brokered truce two weeks later.
Russian-Armenian relations have worsened significantly since then, with Yerevan seeking closer ties with the West and accusing Moscow of not honoring its security commitments to Armenia.
SEE ALSO: Armenia Stops Financial Contributions To Russian-Led Military AlliancePashinian has repeatedly threatened to pull his country out of the CSTO, prompting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to charge that Pashinian’s administration was "leading things to the collapse of Russian-Armenian relations" at the behest of the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pashinian discussed the rift when they met on May 8 after a Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow.