Russia recalled its ambassador to Armenia for consultations on Friday, signaling a further decline in relations between the two longstanding allies.
“On May 24, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, was summoned to Moscow for consultations,” announced Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in a brief statement.
Zakharova did not elaborate on the reason behind this significant move. Similarly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered no explanation when addressing journalists later that day, stating only, “Ambassadors periodically come for consultations.”
The recall of Kopyrkin came two days after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan alleged that two member states of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) assisted Azerbaijan in preparing for the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is widely believed that Pashinyan was referring to Russia and Belarus.
Zakharova responded on Thursday by challenging Pashinyan to identify those countries explicitly. She also noted that Russia had made multiple attempts to halt the 2020 conflict, citing Pashinyan’s rejection of a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement in October 2020, which Azerbaijan had accepted. Armenia suffered further territorial losses before Pashinyan agreed to another ceasefire, mediated by Russia, two weeks later.
Relations between Russia and Armenia have deteriorated significantly since then. Yerevan has been seeking closer ties with the West, accusing Moscow of failing to fulfill its security commitments to Armenia. Earlier this year, Pashinyan repeatedly threatened to withdraw Armenia from the CSTO. In March, Lavrov accused Pashinyan’s administration of steering the Russian-Armenian relationship towards collapse, allegedly under Western influence.
The unprecedented rift between the two nations was a key topic of discussion when Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Pashinyan on May 8, following a Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow.
