Armenia considers it inexpedient to host the CSTO drills in 2023, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press conference on January 10, RBC reported. 

The Russian Defense Ministry had earlier reported that the CSTO peacekeeping drills will be held in Armenia in 2023.

According to PM Pashinyan, there is some misunderstanding in this regard. He said the Armenian Defense Ministry has already informed the CSTO Joint Staff that the Armenian side considers it inexpedient to hold this year’s drills in Armenia.

Asked what the Kremlin think about Armenia’s refusal to host this year’s CSTO war game, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said in an interview with RBC that “Armenia remains a very close ally of Russia and dialogue with it will continue.”  

“This is a fairly new statement by the Prime Minister of Armenia.  I think the CSTO colleagues will be in touch and will clarify the details of Armenia's position.  In any case, Armenia is our very close ally, we will continue dialogue, also including those issues, which are highly complex,” Peskov said.  

Recall, the National-Democratic Pole (NDP), which consists of a number of political parties and fringe groups espousing mostly nationalist views, staged a protest in Yerevan on November 22 last year calling for Armenia’s exit from the CSTO ahead of a summit of the Moscow-led defense bloc in the Armenian capital.  Participants in the protest chanted anti-Russian slogans as they marched through central Yerevan.  They charged that neither Russia nor other members of the CSTO, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, came to Armenia’s aid during or after deadly border clashes with Azerbaijan in September.

Activists and supporters of the NDP, which is not represented in the Armenian parliament, branded both the CSTO and Russia as enemies of Armenia.