YEREVAN -- Armenia said it has sent an official request to Moscow asking it to remove Russian border troops from the Zvartnots international airport in the country's capital as Yerevan continues to distance itself from Moscow amid a souring of bilateral relations.
"Armenia has a clear position in this matter. The Russian Federation was informed via an official letter about that clear position," Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigorian told reporters on March 6, adding that according to Yerevan's position, the airport must be served solely by Armenian border troops.
Russia’s border guard service forms a part of the Federal Security Service structure in Armenia and has been present at Zvartnots airport since 1992. An agreement stationing them there does not specify the roles of Russian border guards, but it does say they can use the airport for transportation needs.
Armenia has been distancing itself from its traditional ally Russia in recent months while at the same time moving closer to the West. Yerevan previously has brought up the subject of the airport but Grigorian's comments on March 6 are the first time Armenia has officially made the request.
"The acquisition of military equipment with Russia has dropped from 96 percent to less than 10 percent. This means that Armenia is implementing a diversification policy that requires partners not only in the West, but also in Asia and in other different directions. Big changes are taking place. Armenia is diversifying its economy and security," Grigorian added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previously said that no official decisions regarding the withdrawal of Russian border guards from Zvartnots had been taken because Moscow had not "officially" received such a request.
Grigorian's statement comes less than two weeks after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in an interview with the France 24 television channel that his country had frozen its membership in the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), accusing Moscow of calling on Armenian citizens to overthrow his government.
The CSTO is at the heart of Armenia's turn away from Moscow. The Pashinian government has long criticized the CSTO for its “failure to respond to the security challenges” facing Armenia.
Armenian authorities have accused Russian peacekeepers deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive last September, which ended with Baku's regaining control over the breakaway region that for three decades had been under ethnic Armenian control.
Moscow has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene and charging that Pashinian had effectively paved the way for the collapse of separatist rule in the region by previously acknowledging Azerbaijan's sovereignty over it.
Pashinian declined to attend the CSTO's summit in Minsk in November and said in a televised Q&A session then that any decision about Yerevan’s continued membership in the group -- which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- would be based on Armenia's "own state interests."