And why should Russia protect when you elect a clown propped by US to undermine Russia and to do what he has done for everyone to see. And they elected this fool again as soon as stalemate happened.
Only three nations care about Armenias existence one, Russia, two, Iran and three, India. And only for that corridor.
For US and Israel, their core interest is trying to create problems in Iran resulting in regime change and they are doing just that. And they will do that to the last Armenian.
Armenia is a CSTO member, not Pashinyan. When the war broke out, the Armenian government invoked Article 4 which is similar to NATO Article 5. Azerbaijan is not a part of this alliance and it invaded Armenia proper (not the Nagorno-Karabakh that they claim). CSTO was treaty-bound to intervene on Armenia's behalf. Granted that Putin was busy in Ukraine but nothing stopped him to clear the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek governments to intervene on Armenia's behalf.
Instead, he publicly favored Baku, struck oil deals with them and held the Central Asian 'stans from intervening. Also, they preferred to stay out, demolishing any trust left in the grouping.
Now after Armenia was beaten raw, it is slowly moving towards the US. Armenians are a strong lobby in the US despite their country's lack of geopolitical significance. Given that Mission Ukraine is a failure, the US will latch on to a scorned ally of Russia. Armenia is the perfect candidate for the next
Afghanistanization attempt.
Georgia is already pro-NATO and hates Russia. Armenia will become the second one. Putin just shot his own foot.
Looks like Russians were informed about it. Lets see where this goes. I doubt Azeris will go for Syunik since neither Russians nor Iranians will tolerate it.
Does Putin realize the damage he is causing to Russia's trustworthiness within CSTO?
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will be watching how Putin treats Armenia from hereon. If he continues to sideline them, they will start trying to branch out; first with China (as it is a safer and acceptable option for Putin) and then slowly with the Americans and who knows, maybe even us. They are watching that we have stepped up our efforts to arm Yerevan. Now I am not saying that we will replace Russia, but all this kicking Armenia around will definitely not go unnoticed.
