NATO Chief's visit part of effort to pull Armenia out of Russia's orbit

MOSCOW: Jens Stoltenberg’s visit to Armenia was timed with a “window of opportunity” for the alliance to try to up-end strategic relations between Russia and Armenia, Stanislav Pritchin told Sputnik.  

NATO’s Secretary General wrapped up his tour of the South Caucasus on March 19 with a stop in Armenia, after visiting Azerbaijan and Georgia.  

 "Trying to pull Armenia out of the orbit of Russian influence and cooperation is a goal in itself [for NATO]," said the associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.  Stoltenberg’s visit to Yerevan was aimed at reinforcing Armenia’s “drift to the West” and timed to coincide with its freezing of CSTO membership, agreed Stanislav Tarasov, political scientist, an expert on the Middle East and Caucasus.  

"It seems to close the circle of NATO’s previously-launched operation in the Transcaucases," he said.  

Events in the South Caucasus are now greatly influenced by what is unfolding in the Middle East, amid the Palestine-Israel conflict, Tarasov stressed.   

"So, on the one hand, it is clear that Russia is gaining the upper hand in the conflict with Ukraine and will further strengthen its position in the post-Soviet space. On the other hand, a ‘tsunami’ is approaching from the southern direction. Thus, NATO is actually drawing the states of the region, on the one hand, into confrontation with Russia, and on the other hand, drawing them into the zone of destabilization of the Greater Middle East. This is precisely the very prospect that shrewd politicians in the Caucasus should avoid at all costs," said the analyst.  

Tarasov compared Nikol Pashinyan to Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting that Armenia might be the next "geopolitical victim" of Western influence, risking its statehood.