YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — Russian border guards will leave Armenia’s sole border crossing with Iran by January 1 while remaining deployed along the border between the two countries, the Armenian government announced on Tuesday, October 8.
The spokeswoman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, said he reached such an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their talks in Moscow held earlier in the day.
“At the checkpoint on the Armenia-Iran state border, the service will be carried out entirely by the Border Guard Troops of Armenia’s [National Security Service],” she wrote on Facebook.
Baghdasaryan said the two leaders also agreed that starting from next year Armenian border guards “will also participate in the protection” of the country’s borders with Iran and Turkey together with their Russian colleagues. She gave no reason for these decisions apparently initiated by the Armenian side. Russian officials did not immediately comment on them.
The development comes just over two months after Russia completed the withdrawal of its border guards from Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport, which was demanded by Pashinyan’s government in March amid heightened tensions with Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the demand, saying that Yerevan risks inflicting “irreparable damage” on Russian-Armenian relations and jeopardizing Armenia’s security and economic development.
Russian border guards have for decades been stationed along Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran as part of close Russian-Armenian military ties. Russia also has a military base in the South Caucasus country. In March, a senior Russian lawmaker said he “would not recommend that the Armenian authorities even think about” demanding an end to the Russian military presence.
