Kremlin Slams Armenia Over Zelenskiy's Anti-Russia Remarks
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- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Armenia on Sunday of providing Zelenskiy with "a platform for anti-Russian remarks" during his Yerevan visit last week, calling the situation "not in keeping with the spirit of our relations with Yerevan" and saying Russia was awaiting an explanation.
- Moscow had already summoned the Armenian ambassador on Thursday to protest what it called "terrorist threats against Russia" after Zelenskiy said Russia feared drones buzzing over Red Square during the May 9 Victory Day parade.
- The Victory Day parade went ahead Saturday in a scaled-back format without the usual military hardware display, with the source attributing the scaled-back nature to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks.
- Russia also expressed concern Thursday that Armenia was being drawn into the EU's "anti-Russian orbit" after Yerevan hosted the European Political Community meeting on May 4, attended by more than 40 European leaders including Zelenskiy, followed by an EU-Armenia summit.
- Peskov said "the main thing for us is that Armenia does not adopt an anti-Russian stance," highlighting Moscow's red line as relations between the two countries continue to sour.
- Russia-Armenia ties have grown increasingly rancorous since Azerbaijan forcibly retook the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023 despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers, and Armenia currently hosts various Russian military bases.
Why it matters: Russia is publicly berating a country that hosts its own military bases — a concrete escalation in a post-Nagorno-Karabakh rift. The trigger was Zelenskiy mocking the scaled-back May 9 parade (which Moscow cut precisely because of Ukrainian drone threats), and Russia's simultaneous anger over Armenia hosting 40+ European leaders shows Moscow is now treating a CSTO ally's standard diplomatic engagements as defection.
