BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 16. The refusal of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to participate in the summit of the CIS Council of Heads of State, which was held in Bishkek, is a deliberate anti-Russian step by Yerevan, Director General of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia), Igor Korotchenko told TurkicWorld.

"At the moment, we are witnessing a deterioration, in fact, to zero, of Russian-Armenian contacts. This leads to Armenia's rapprochement with the West, integration into Western security structures, and attempts by Yerevan to drag foreign military contingents of countries that are not represented in the region into the territory of the South Caucasus,” said Korotchenko.

“In particular, we are talking about attempts to attract a military or observation mission of the EU, as well as a military contingent of France under a peacekeeping mandate. Although the events that have taken place in recent weeks have led to the fact that Azerbaijan has fully restored its sovereignty over Karabakh, nevertheless, we see that Armenia's attempts in the global game against Azerbaijan are still continuing," he said.

According to him, at the same time, Armenia demonstrates its hostile attitude towards Russia.

"Of course, I can say that we are all objectively interested in the conclusion of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, where Armenia and Azerbaijan, recognizing each other's territorial integrity, could carry out the process of delimitation and demarcation of the state border and unblock transport communications, including the Zangezur corridor (paragraph 9 of the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020, signed by Pashinyan),” Korotchenko said.

“All these positive processes will lead to the formation of the South Caucasus as a region of peace, cooperation, and economic prosperity. Of course, it will not be easy to achieve this, but I am convinced that all the goals set by Russia and Azerbaijan will be realized in the end. Our common task is to make Armenia agree to demilitarization, peaceful development, and stop making territorial claims to neighboring countries," Korotchenko said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to take part in the CIS summit in Bishkek. In a telephone conversation with the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, he said that he would not be able to take part in the event.