Members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization have decided to strip Armenia of its voting rights. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced this, and his comment was published by the Telegram channel "Yunashev Live".
As Peskov explained, Armenia had failed to fulfill its obligations for several years, so it was decided to strip it of its voting rights, as well as the right to appoint its representatives to senior posts in the CSTO.
Since 2024, Yerevan has not been transferring membership dues to the organization. Under Article 25 of the charter, if arrears to the CSTO budget exceed a two-year period, the country is stripped of its voting rights. At the same time, Armenia retains the right to collective security.
In February 2024, Nikol Pashinyan announced the freeze of the republic's membership in the association, citing the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh as the reason. According to the prime minister, at least two CSTO members allegedly helped Azerbaijan prepare for war with Armenia and merely "imitated help to Yerevan". He did not name specific states, but said that the military actions of those years were allegedly aimed at eliminating the country's independence.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that in September 2022 the organization quickly formed and sent an assessment mission of the organization's secretariat and Joint Staff to Armenia's border areas. Based on the results, the Collective Security Council decided to deploy a monitoring group in the republic, but the authorities in Yerevan rejected it and preferred to invite EU representatives.