Armen Grigorian’s office announced on Thursday his participation in the conference that will take place in the Swiss resort town of Davos on January 14.
Grigorian already attended the last such meeting held in Malta in October. Security officials from more than 60 countries converged on the island to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plan to end the war with Russia. Grigorian met with Zelenskiy’s chief of staff during what Moscow condemned as a “blatantly anti-Russian event.”
Grigorian’s trip to Malta contrasted with Armenian leaders’ boycott of high-level meetings of Russian-led groupings of ex-Soviet states and highlighted Yerevan’s mounting tensions with Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the trip a “demonstrative anti-Russian gesture” and accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations.
Despite the angry Russian reaction, Armenia kept up diplomatic contacts with Ukraine. The foreign ministers of the two states held talks in Brussels on December 11 on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the top diplomats of European Union member states and ex-Soviet republics involved in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program.
Pashinian did not boycott fresh ex-Soviet summits that were hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg two weeks later. But his attendance did not seem to ease the unprecedented rift between the two longtime allies.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said later in December that Armenia is reorienting its foreign policy towards the West at the expense of its alliance with Russia. He warned that the South Caucasus country cannot successfully confront its grave security challenges with the help of the United States and the European Union.
Citing an unnamed “informed source,” Russia’s main official news agency, TASS, claimed on Wednesday that Germany is pressing Pashinian’s government to force Russian border guards out of Armenia and purge the Armenian state apparatus from pro-Russian elements in return for greater economic aid.
There was no official reaction to the claim from Berlin or Yerevan. While pledging to “diversify” Armenia’s foreign and security policy, Pashinian has so far indicated no plans to demand the withdrawal of Russian border guards or troops from Armenia.