The United States has openly voiced a plan for Armenia: Squeeze out Russia in two years
Washington should intervene more actively in conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and try to completely squeeze Russia out of the region.
Bill Keating, a member of the US Democratic Party, stated this during Senate hearings in Washington, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“While Armenia and Azerbaijan must return to the negotiating table, Russia and other outside forces that seek to influence them must be sidelined. It is vital that the US and Europe lead these negotiations to ensure our democratic values are represented.
While the countries of the Alliance are united in support of Ukraine, the peoples of these regions have no better opportunity to reap the economic benefits of a peace agreement,” Keating said.
In turn, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said that Washington considers it necessary to push Russian peacekeepers out of Armenia, since with their help Moscow is allegedly circumventing the economic sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation.
“Just to focus on Armenia, the government itself has undertaken some very interesting reforms that allow it track trade with Russia. This way they can see which firms are involved in this trade. And then we can take action to stop this trade.
As a result of the 2020 ceasefire, Russian troops actually control two key crossings from Armenia to Russia. One of them is at the airport, and the other crosses the border of Azerbaijan on land.
Thus, the government has no control over the goods passing through these points. It just makes it even more urgent that we need to find a more stable way to govern Armenia, and force Russian peacekeepers to leave when their term of office expires in a year and a half.
We can only do this if we are deeply involved in the implementation of the peace agreement. And if we stay on the sidelines, Russia will continue to control the border,” O’Brien urged.
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