Baku, September 6, AZERTAC

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is using Russia as a lightning rod for the discontent that’s building up in Armenia in connection with the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, according to analysts interviewed by TASS.

"He needs a lightning rod. This lightning rod is in the form of Russia, to which he wanted to direct the negative energy that is building up in Armenian society against him," said Vladimir Novikov, head of the Caucasus Department at the Institute of CIS Countries.

The analyst explained that Pashinyan, when he came to power in 2018, "actually nullified the negotiation process" on Karabakh.

"He lost and was forced to sign a statement that said nothing about the negotiations within the Minsk Group," Novikov said.

"We are dealing with very risky rhetoric," said another analyst, Andrey Bystritsky, board chairman at the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

According to the analyst, the rhetoric is "based on an attempt to manipulate the world community."

He said Armenia's elite has "colossal international ties and is trying to find an extremely contradictory balance between mutually exclusive political forces in order to protect its own interests."

"This shows us that there is no unified policy there," Bystritsky said.

He expressed confidence that "this ambiguous rhetoric" differs significantly from the real policy that Yerevan plans to pursue in this direction.

At the same time, the expert stated that one cannot rule out that the statements will produce a negative impact on the situation with the Karabakh settlement.

"Dangerous frivolity in the Armenian rhetoric, unfortunately, could indeed provoke dangerous and significant changes in the life of the republic and for the situation on the ground," the analyst said.

Earlier, Pashinyan said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Russia is drifting away from the South Caucasus. According to the prime minister, Russian peacekeepers do not control the Lachin corridor because Russia either does not want to or cannot do so.