MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s September 24 address contains unacceptable attacks on Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, commenting on the situation around Karabakh and Armenia.

"Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s September 24, 2023, address on independence contains unacceptable attacks on Russia, something which causes nothing but revulsion. It is a clear attempt to shift the responsibility for domestic and foreign policy failures by putting the blame on Moscow," the statement reads.

The Armenian head of government in fact already admitted that deliberate preparations had been made for Yerevan to make a U-turn away from Moscow, the ministry stressed. "The steps that are aimed at setting Armenia on a new - Western - course of development are being unconvincingly explained by mistakes allegedly made by Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization," the statement said, adding: "However, they forget that our countries share similar security and development interests, while the US and other NATO countries seek not only to cause strategic damage to Russia but also to destabilize our common Eurasian space."

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that "Russia has always remained committed to its allied obligations and respected Armenia's statehood." Moscow continues to provide large-scale assistance to Armenia in the fields of security, economy and culture, the ministry noted.

Meanwhile, "Prague and Brussels decided to act based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, recognizing Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh." "This fundamentally changed the situation which had paved the way for the signing of a trilateral statement on November 9, 2020, as well as the situation of the Russian peacekeeping mission," the Foreign Ministry explained.

According to the ministry, the Armenian leadership’s short-sightedness hindered efforts to implement a number of agreements aimed at strengthening Armenia’s security; in particular, Pashinyan failed to sign an agreement on sending a CSTO observer mission to Armenia’s areas bordering Azerbaijan, which had been agreed on by the six member states’ top diplomats.

According to the statement, "it was largely due to the inconsistent position of the Armenian leadership, which preferred to zigzag and turn to the West instead of steadily working with Russia and Azerbaijan, that the implementation of the high-level trilateral agreements reached in 2020-2022 stalled."

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Yerevan did not seem to show an interest in helping resolve the pressing problems that Nagorno-Karabakh was facing: "We are talking about creating conditions for adherence with the ceasefire, improving the humanitarian situation and building a sustainable dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert."

"We believe that the authorities in Yerevan are making a big mistake, deliberately trying to ruin Armenia’s centuries-long multifaceted ties with Russia and making the country hostage to the West’s geopolitical games. We are sure that the vast majority of the Armenian people realize that," the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded.