Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that it would be inappropriate to conduct exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the country in 2023. He is quoted by Interfax.
According to him, the head of the Armenian Defense Ministry informed the CSTO Joint Headquarters about this. The exercises “in the current situation” are inappropriate, Pashinyan believes.
During the CSTO summit in Yerevan, Armenia refused to sign the final declaration, referring to the fact that the allies "did not give a clear political assessment of Azerbaijan's aggression." According to many participants, the organization cannot cope with the main tasks. Political scientist Arkady Dubnov noted in an article for The Insider that for Russian President Vladimir Putin, this summit had a completely different political meaning.
At the end of December, Pashinyan accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to fulfill their tasks in Nagorno-Karabakh. In his opinion, the situation in the region is tense because of Azerbaijan, but this does not change the essence. Peacekeepers are in Karabakh to prevent illegal actions and control the Lachin corridor, but due to its blockade, the humanitarian situation remains extremely tense.
On December 12, eco-activists from Azerbaijan with national flags blocked the only highway between Karabakh and Armenia and set up a tent camp near Shushi. The BBC drew attention to the fact that outwardly the activists did not look like environmentalists, for example, some participants came to the rally in fur coats. Local residents in Nagorno-Karabakh suffer from the blockage of the corridor, they have lost the right to free movement, hundreds of families are separated and are located on different sides of the highway.