“A decision has been made to deprive Armenia of its voting rights in the CSTO,” Peskov told Russia’s TASS news agency.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the CSTO’s Collective Security Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nineteen documents were signed at the meeting, according to Russian officials. Armenia was not mentioned during the public part of the summit.

Earlier on Wednesday, Peskov said that “Armenia is not participating in the CSTO’s activities and the organization will respond to that situation.”

He referred to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s recent statement that “Armenia’s interest in the CSTO has been exhausted.”

According to the CSTO, Armenia has not paid membership dues for two years and under the organization’s charter, nonpayment results in the loss of voting rights and the right to hold quotas in governing positions.

Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on the CSTO’s decision.

Armenia has been boycotting CSTO activities since 2022 when it accused the organization, which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, of failing to assist it in the face of Azerbaijani military aggression against Armenian sovereign territory and to give a political assessment of Azerbaijan’s occupation of Armenian territory. Yerevan subsequently relinquished its quota for the post of deputy secretary general.

In February 2024, Pashinian announced that Armenia was freezing its membership in the alliance. The country also stopped paying its membership dues.

On several occasions in recent months Pashinian said that Yerevan would not object if the CSTO decided to expel it, although he stopped short of announcing a formal withdrawal from the organization.

Russia, meanwhile, has maintained that Armenia remains a full-fledged CSTO member despite its boycott.

Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin accused Yerevan of trying to shift responsibility for its own decisions onto the organization, while stressing that Armenia continued to retain its membership status.

Speaking at a meeting of CSTO foreign ministers on the eve of the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said that the organization was “not shutting its doors” to Armenia and that the country would retain its right to collective defense even if its voting rights were suspended.

“Pashinian has said that the CSTO no longer interests Armenia because it is useless to them. Nevertheless, these are all just words not backed by any official document,” he said.

Commenting on statements from Yerevan that the CSTO does not meet Armenia’s security needs, Lavrov said: “If that’s the case, then they should leave. But if they want us to kick Armenia out, we won’t do that.”