SOCHI, October 2. /TASS/. The statements about the potential withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) coming from Yerevan are the sovereign choice of the Armenian leadership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"If, as some Armenian leaders asserted, having been disenchanted with Russia and the CSTO, now they will seek partners on bolstering their security elsewhere, this is their sovereign choice, the choice of the Armenian leadership," the top Russian diplomat told reporters on the sidelines of the 20th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
"I still hope that the ties that have existed for centuries between Russia’s peoples, the Russian people and other peoples of Russia, and the Armenian people, will not be ruined by any provisional administrations," Lavrov said.
That said, he noted that Moscow was working with its Azerbaijani colleagues in order to stabilize the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. "We are working with our Azerbaijani colleagues and neighbors for the sake of stabilizing the situation in Karabakh, building trust there and creating conditions for the resumption of normal life, the shared existence of the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. I expect that Yerevan should also be interested in this and that they will exert efforts along these lines," the Russian foreign minister said.