The head of the Russian-backed Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) today downplayed Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s refusal to attend last week’s summit of the leaders of ex-Soviet states making up the alliance.

CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov, who is scheduled to visit Yerevan soon, claimed that Pashinyan failed to show up in Minsk for “technical” reasons.

“In my view, it makes no sense to draw any categorical conclusions from this situation,” Tasmagambetov told the TASS news agency. “Armenia was and remains our ally.”

Pashinyan’s snubbing of the summit emphasized his government’s mounting tensions with the other CSTO member states and Russia.

Pashinyan has repeatedly accused the CSTO of not honoring its security commitments to Armenia, going so far as hinting that he’d pull out of the military alliance.