The deal received Moscow’s blessing and prompted Yerevan to quit the Russia-led alliance.

Russia’s proxies betrayed Armenia by selling advanced weapons to its arch enemy, determining Yerevan to exit the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led military alliance.

Belarus, which is a member of the CSTO alongside Armenia, had secretly sold Groza-S counter-drone mobile warfare stations to Azerbaijan from 2018 to 2022, and the deal most likely had the blessing of the Kremlin, according to leaked documents seen by Politico.

In May 2023, a few months before the third Azerbaijani-Armenian armed conflict, Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko paid a working visit to his counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in a long-standing conflict in the South Caucasus, often escalating into full-scale wars, over an enclave called Nagorny Karabakh – a territory populated by ethnic Armenians under Azerbaijani sovereignty but occupied de facto by Armenia between 1994 and 2023 along with several adjacent regions.

The two neighbors have fought three wars (1988-1994, 2020, 2023) and ended the military operations in the dissolution of the secessionist Nagorny Narabakh republic and the exodus of almost the entire Armenian population (more than 100,000 people) by the end of 2023.

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Neither Russia, which keeps a military contingent and a peacekeeping force in Armenia, nor Belarus or any other CSTO members (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) helped Armenians defend themselves, prompting Yerevan to shift away from the alliance and seek closer ties with the West.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in June that his government would file for a formal withdrawal from the bloc any time soon in response to Russia’s “betrayal” of its ally and failure to fulfill its military obligations. The Armenian army has since staged joint drills with U.S. forces, called for help from the West to strengthen its democracy, and even hinted it could one day seek to join the E.U.

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Doing so will not be easy because Russia dominates the trade with Armenia, controls some of its key industries such as infrastructure and energy, and guards its southern border.

Armenia and Belarus have also called their ambassadors home as the two countries have since severed their diplomatic ties.

Armenia is a Christian Orthodox country like Russia and Belarus while Azerbaijan is Muslim like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

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