Against the background of the complicated internal political situation in Armenia and preparations for parliamentary elections, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) should show maximum tact and caution when building a bilateral dialogue with Yerevan.

The President of Belarus expressed a similar opinion Alexander Lukashenko During the meeting with CSTO General Secretary Taalatbek Masadikov, BELTA news agency reports. The leader of Belarus emphasized that despite the noticeable decrease in the activity of the Armenian side within the framework of the military-political alliance, the country officially remains its member.

According to the head of the country, the situation on the eve of the summer election campaign in the republic requires a special balance from the allies. In order to clarify the further position of Yerevan, Lukashenko suggested that the secretary general of the organization personally visit Armenia and hold direct consultations with the country’s leadership: the prime minister, the president and the secretary of the Security Council.

According to the President of Belarus, this will allow to openly discuss the prospects and future format of cooperation on the CSTO platform.

The cooling of relations between Yerevan and the CSTO became systemic after the border escalations of 2021-2022. In response to the requests of the Armenian side, the Organization proposed to deploy its own observation mission on the border and provide a package of military-technical assistance. However, the leadership of Armenia refused to accept that initiative, justifying its decision by the fact that the partners of the alliance did not give a clear political assessment to the actions of Azerbaijan in the sovereign territory of Armenia.

Instead of the CSTO mechanisms, Yerevan chose to invite the European Union’s long-term civilian observation mission (EUMA). This move was strongly criticized by Moscow. The presence of Europeans in Russia was assessed as a geopolitical attempt by the West to push Russia out of the South Caucasus, and the EU mission was accused of gathering intelligence against Russia and Iran. In the background of these sharp differences, Armenia actually “froze” its participation in CSTO activities.

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The talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held in Moscow on April 1 recorded the new realities of bilateral relations. The focus was on Yerevan’s geopolitical priorities and the final closure of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, the responsibility of which the Kremlin now places entirely on the Armenian leadership.

As Sputnik agency reports, the sincere dialogue of the leaders lasted several hours. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov According to him, in the comment given to “Vesti” news agency and journalist Pavel Zarubin, the Armenian side understood Moscow’s concerns, but Russia will continue to monitor the practical development of interstate relations. One of the key issues became the foreign political vector of Yerevan.

“Vedomosti” periodical notes that Vladimir Putin directly pointed out the impossibility of Armenia’s simultaneous participation in the customs unions of the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, confirmed that although the choice of unification is the sovereign right of the country, it will not be possible to combine full membership in both structures. The Prime Minister of Armenia agreed with this thesis, but expressed his belief that the current agenda of Yerevan’s contacts with Europe at this stage is compatible with the obligations assumed within the framework of EAEU.

The second most important topic was the discussion of the consequences of the Karabakh conflict. According to the publication of RBC, Moscow insists that references to Russia be completely excluded during the discussion of this issue. Dmitry Peskov emphasized that what happened in the region is entirely the result of the decisions of the current Yerevan authorities, and the Russian side has nothing to do with it.

Nikol Pashinyan during the meeting announced the need to stop the Karabakh return movement, citing the established fact of establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Let’s remind that more than 100,000 people left Nagorno-Karabakh after the Baku military operation in the fall of 2023, the unrecognized republic officially ceased to exist on January 1, 2024, and the Russian peacekeeping troops were completely withdrawn from the region in June of the same year.

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Hayk Sargsyan, deputy of the ruling “Civil Contract” faction of the RA National Assembly, has severely criticized the living conditions prevailing in the armed forces, demanding to ensure the possibility of daily bathing for servicemen.

In a conversation with journalists in the parliament on April 6, the MP said that he has been asking the Minister of Defense to solve the issue of hygiene in the army for two years in vain. According to him, the problem was particularly aggravated back in 2024, when the case of a soldier’s death from pneumonia, which was probably caused by bathing in cold water, was discussed in a closed meeting.

Sargsyan emphasized that the practice of bathing once a week has generally been preserved only in a number of underdeveloped states, while daily bathing is considered the norm in dozens of armies of the world. The deputy noted that this change does not require additional financial costs.

Although conditions have improved in some newly built military units, most servicemen continue to bathe only once a week.

Since the problem is not solved for a long time, the politician came up with a unique proposal. The leadership of the Ministry of Defense should themselves switch to this hygiene regimen and bathe once a week until proper living conditions are ensured for the soldiers.

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Hayk Sargsyan, deputy of the ruling “Civil Agreement” faction, publicly commented on the current state of his relations with RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as the news about possible criminal prosecution. According to the politician, their once close friendship was effectively terminated due to the state status of the head of the government, and the statements about pending investigations are groundless.

During a briefing with journalists in the parliament on April 6, Sargsyan admitted that he considered Pashinyan his elder brother until May 2018. However, after the appointment of the latter as the prime minister, it became impossible to maintain the previous format of communication. The deputy considered this situation natural, stressing that the permanent connection was objectively cut off. At the same time, he expressed his belief that if Pashinyan leaves his post decades later, their friendly relations will be restored.

The parliamentarian separately referred to the recent harsh statements of the prime minister, which allowed the possibility of criminal cases to be initiated. Sargsyan categorically denied such a scenario, noting that no proceedings were initiated during the past months. He emphasized that the emergence of fabricated cases in post-revolutionary Armenia is unacceptable, and called on the media to avoid noisy headlines, because there are no real legal processes or even similar discussions about him.

Reference: the cooling of relations within the ruling power

Relations between Hayk Sargsyan and the leadership of the “Civil Contract” party noticeably worsened at the beginning of 2026. The decision of the party administration not to include the deputy in the pre-election lists received public attention. Commenting on this situation, Nikol Pashinyan announced zero tolerance for any manifestation of corruption among teammates. In response, Sargsyan categorically denied his involvement in illegal transactions, noting that his tough stance on a number of acute issues could cause dissatisfaction among some individuals within the political force.

An additional factor in the tension was the mention of Sargsyan’s name by the prosecutor during the court hearings in the case of Hovik Aghazaryan, another former deputy of the ruling party. Despite the information noise created around this process, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia officially confirmed that Hayk Sargsyan does not have the status of an accused in any of the current criminal investigations.

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Against the background of the unprecedented expansion of the US-Israeli military campaign in the Middle East, the Iranian media confirmed the death of the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), General Majid Khademi.

According to Iranian press reports, a high-ranking military officer was the victim of another joint US-Israeli airstrike. This attack continued the series of targeted targeting. earlier, on April 2, the official Tehran announced that Kamal Kharazi, the chairman of the Strategic Council of Foreign Relations of Iran, was severely wounded and his wife was killed as a result of a similar bombing.

The large-scale military operations launched by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic on February 28 have now gone beyond the borders of the country, turning into a major regional conflict and involving Lebanon and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. As a result of the current military campaign, key figures of Iran’s top military and political leadership have already been killed, including the country’s spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei.

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A sharp debate took place between the deputies of the ruling faction in the Armenian parliament over the demographic situation in the armed forces and the conscription mechanisms. While the leadership of the sectoral commission announces the increase in the number of conscripts and the improvement of service conditions, there are also alarms about the catastrophic reduction of staff due to the mass renunciation of citizenship by young people.

Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly Andranik Kocharyan harshly criticized the legislative initiative of his colleague, Hayk Sargsyan, which offered a mechanism to get rid of the army in exchange for money. Kocharyan emphasized his principled position against such practice, noting that the draft was so problematic that not only the faction voted against it, but also the author himself. Turning to the demographic question, the head of the commission assured that the military conscription indicators have been steadily increasing in the last two years.

He attributed this positive trend to the stabilization of the peaceful environment and legislative reforms, which allowed to reduce the death rate and increase security in the troops, thereby restoring the confidence of mothers in the army system.

The parliamentary opposition also joined the debate, categorically rejecting the initiative to get rid of the service on a paid basis. As Gegham Manukyan, deputy of the Hayastan faction, stated, such an approach is not only unconstitutional, but also carries the risk of deep division within the society, even individual families, due to financial inequality. According to the opposition figure, the problem of the lack of conscripts requires a complex analysis, not commercialization of debt to the state.

Manukyan denied the argument that young people avoid military service en masse only because of the danger of military operations, citing Israel and Iran as examples, where the number of volunteers in times of escalation exceeds the real requirements of the army many times over. At the same time, the deputy agreed with the existence of the problem of serious social disparity in military conscription between the capital and marzes, stressing, however, that it should be solved by methods that unite citizens, not separate them.

A deputy presented a diametrically opposite picture Hayk Sargsyanpublishing alarming statistics on the downsizing of the army. According to his data, in the last 14 years, the number of conscripts has decreased more than three times, from 44 thousand in 2010 to 14 thousand in 2024. The parliamentarian claims that the armed forces lose about 30 percent of potential draftees every year because wealthy families en masse change their sons’ citizenships before they reach adulthood.

Sargsyan warned that more than 2,800 young people refused their Armenian passports in 2025 alone, stressing that his rejected project was directed against this “loophole” intended for the rich. In addition, the politician pointed out acute social injustice. according to his statistics, the main burden of the country’s defense falls on the marzes, where 50 percent of the conscripts go to serve, while in the capital, this figure is only 10 percent.

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