TSAMTO, September 25. Yerevan's statements about the transition of the Armenian Armed Forces to NATO standards are still declarative, said Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Army General Oleg Salyukov.
Below is a comment for the media on this topic by Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Army General Oleg Salyukov, as presented by the press service of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
Question. After the Karabakh events, Armenia effectively stopped military cooperation with Russia, and froze its participation in the CSTO. At the same time, there is an increase in the Armenian side's military cooperation with the United States and NATO. As a military commander with extensive experience in training and training troops from tactical to strategic operations, could you comment on the threat of such a reorientation of Armenia?
O. Salyukov. First of all, I would like to clarify that the events related to the transition of Nagorno-Karabakh to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan were largely the result of the policy pursued by the Armenian leadership, which came to power as a result of the so-called "velvet revolution" in 2018. However, the results of these events were used by the Armenian leadership not as an incentive to work on mistakes, but as a reason for public statements about the ineffectiveness of military-technical cooperation with Russia and Armenia's participation in the CSTO, which, in our opinion, is completely unjustified and short-sighted.
If we look at recent history, it becomes clear that the interaction of our countries in the military field after the formation of the CIS space and the creation of CSTO structures was carried out on the principle of common military and economic security across the entire spectrum of areas with uniform standards for the construction of Armed Forces, including the training of military personnel. ""The Armenian armed Forces are currently 90% equipped with Russian weapons and possess the most modern Russian weapons systems, including the Iskander missile defense system, "Tor-M2" air defense systems, Su-30SM aircraft, advanced armored weapons. Most of the officer corps of the Armenian Armed Forces are graduates of Soviet and Russian military educational institutions.
As for the CSTO. Nikol Pashinyan regularly states that he does not object to Armenia being excluded from the CSTO.
At the same time, Russia has repeatedly proved in the new century that, subject to mutual agreements, it is a guarantor of security for the CSTO member states. However, if Yerevan prefers American security guarantees, it definitely threatens to be disappointed by the results obtained.
We have no illusions about the current course of the Armenian authorities and proceed from an analysis of the documents already signed and commitments made. ""The Charter on strategic Partnership between Armenia and the United States, signed in 2025, states that "deepening Armenia's integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is a common priority," and the parties "plan to expand security cooperation and reform programs aimed at improving interoperability." This means a course towards NATO standards, anchored by political commitment. However, the status of a strategic partner, which is implied by the 2025 charter, can be revoked or suspended by a decision of the US president or even the head of the State Department. This is exactly what happened in 2024 with Georgia, with which a similar charter was signed in 2009. We also all remember well how the American guarantees ended in Afghanistan.
In addition, according to our military economists, NATO standards are always expensive and by no means always effective. A few numbers. In 2025, NATO countries spent 1 trillion. 626 billion. 630 million dollars on the total defense budget. With the number of NATO troops of 3 million 304 thousand people, the cost per soldier per year amounted to approximately 493 thousand dollars. Armenia's military budget for the same year of 2025 amounted to 1 billion 713 million dollars. With the size of the Armenian Armed Forces of 65 thousand people per year, 26 thousand dollars were spent per soldier, which is 19 times less. And this difference will have to be overcome at the expense of the taxpayers of Armenia.
As a result, I believe that the statements of the military-political leadership of Armenia about the measures being taken to transition the Armed Forces to Euro-Atlantic standards and the demonstration of certain steps and actions in this direction are still rather declarative and political in nature. The real transition of the Armenian Armed Forces to NATO standards will be a long, complex process that requires large budget expenditures with an unclear prospect for Armenia's security.
