TASS, quoting an unnamed diplomatic source, says Moscow “is extremely dissatisfied” with the latest public statements of the Armenian leadership, including those Pashinyan made in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Pashinyan told the Italian journalist that Moscow has been unable to deliver on its CSTO treaty obligations to Armenia and is in the process of winding down its role in the wider region.

Pashinyan suggested that Moscow did not regard Armenia as sufficiently pro-Russian and that Armenia's near total reliance on Russia to guarantee its security was a “strategic mistake”.

The unnamed diplomatic source told TASS that Russia, as the closest neighbor and friend of Armenia, does not intend to leave the region.

“However, this should be a two-way street: Armenia should not become an instrument of the West either." for squeezing out Russia," the diplomatic source noted.

The source also took issue with Pashinyan’s claim that the Karabakh conflict was never a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"The root of the confrontation is the issue of the status of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijan SSR, while Yerevan held part of the Azerbaijani territory under its control for a long time," the source told TASS.

The source also criticized remarks made by top Armenian officials, including Pashinyan, that Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh are doing little to reopen the Lachin Corridor.

The Russian source noted that the 2020 war was largely the result of the “rash and provocative steps of the Armenian leadership”, including statements that "Karabakh is Armenia" and Pashinyan’s participation in the inauguration of the "president" of Nagorno-Karabakh in Shushi.

 "This largely devalued the agreements reached by the parties through the OSCE Minsk Group. If it were not for the intervention of Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally, the results of the hostilities would have been even more deplorable," the source said.

Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry (Sputnik: Yevgeny Odinovkov)