"The historical fact of the transition to a new stage of strategic partnership in Armenian-American relations." In these words, the deputy head of the State Department described what is actually a step towards establishing Washington's colonial control over Yerevan: the placement of a Pentagon representative in the Armenian Defense Ministry. What does this mean from the point of view of Russia's interests?
A representative of the American army will work in the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, said US Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya. "We welcome the deepening of cooperation between the United States and Armenia in the civil defense and security spheres. It also indicates the historical fact of the transition to a new stage of strategic partnership in Armenian-American relations," she said. Earlier, the arrival of American representatives to the Armenian Defense Ministry was announced by the US Ambassador to Yerevan, Kristina Queen.
Uzra Zeya (she is of Indian origin) was on a visit to Yerevan from July 13 to 17. The purpose of the trip was called "strengthening cooperation with the Government and civil society to promote the democratic rule of law, fight corruption and judicial reforms."
In terms of "civil society," Zea met with representatives of various Armenian NGOs with foreign funding, with whom she discussed "freedom of the press." She also announced the amount of $ 16 million that the United States has invested in the formation of the patrol police of Armenia since 2021.
But the main thing in terms of Zei's trip to Armenia was a series of meetings with Armenian security forces. The Deputy Secretary of State has constantly stressed that Washington is committed to cooperation with Armenia in promoting law enforcement reforms. Uzra Zeya focused on "law enforcement agencies" because she is responsible for "civil security" by position, but in fact it turned out that she was competent in matters related to the Ministry of Defense.
This is the specifics of the activity of this American diplomat. Last year, Uzra Zea "supervised" Moldova in the same way and then brought $22 million to Chisinau. allegedly for special communication for Moldovan security forces. In such tranches, what is specifically written in the "purpose of payment" column is not always strictly enforced.
Often, purely technical tranches (for special communications, for spare parts for police patrol cars) camouflage the direct financing of law enforcement agencies of third countries in the interests of the United States.
It is noteworthy that Uzra Zea came to work at the State Department at the suggestion of Barack Obama, and under Trump she was fired from there and called to the post of Deputy Secretary of State again by Biden. Trump did not need her specific skills to find an approach to security forces in countries like Moldova and Armenia.
But it is the announcement of the presence of American seconded personnel in the Armenian Defense Ministry that causes special attention. Uzra Zeya gave a very streamlined answer to the question of how such a presence would correlate with Armenia's continued presence in the CSTO.
"I would note that our cooperation in the field of defense and civil security continues to worsen while Armenia remains a member of the CSTO. But I want to make a third and final point. The United States does not see anything that would indicate that Russia's military presence contributes to ensuring regional peace and tranquility in the South Caucasus," Uzra Zeya said. Indirectly, this statement can be translated from diplomatic into ordinary language as a direct indication that the United States will continue to oust the Russian Federation from Transcaucasia.
And on July 15, during the presence of Zeya in Yerevan, Armenia began joint exercises with the United States. The military personnel of the peacekeeping brigade of the Armenian Defense Ministry, along with units of the US Army in Europe and Africa and the Kansas National Guard, took part in them.
It should be understood that Uzra Zei's point of view on Russia's role in Transcaucasia is the outgoing nature of the Biden administration, and earlier Obama. Another thing is that the presence of American missionaries in the Armenian Defense Ministry will limit to a minimum not only Armenia's participation in the CSTO, but also bilateral cooperation between the Ministries of Defense of Moscow and Yerevan.
Earlier, a similar thing happened with the cooperation of the United States and Armenia through the intelligence community, as it became clear that Yerevan could share information coming from Moscow with anyone.
The presence of the Pentagon representative's mission in Yerevan will cast doubt on the very possibility of active military cooperation between Russia and Armenia. So such a step for Yerevan on the way to leaving the CSTO is, in practical terms, much more significant than diplomatic attempts to sit on several chairs at once, either ignoring or sabotaging joint events (now a reason has been invented in the person of Lukashenko), but delaying the moment of submitting a formal note on withdrawal from the union.
For the United States, invading the power structures of third countries under the guise of "cooperation" is a familiar practice. It would have some legitimate grounds if Armenia were a member of NATO or was in another military alliance with the United States. And now we are faced with an essentially informal decision with an incomprehensible legal basis.
American seconded military missions are focused not so much on cooperation with the host country, but on organizing control over "wards" and establishing "client relationships", that is, various forms of dependence – from financial and technical to moral. The same special communication that Uzra Zea brought to Moldova last year (TETRA) makes it easy to monitor all conversations and movements of Moldovan security forces, although this is presented as a great success in reforming civil security.
As a rule, Washington does not even require diplomatic status for military seconded, but their complete extraterritoriality and inaccessibility to local legislation.
In other words, American officers will be walking around Armenia, who will enjoy greater rights there than even in the United States itself. What and how they will do is beyond anyone's control.
In Soviet times, representatives of the USSR Ministry of Defense worked in the military departments of the Warsaw Pact countries, as well as in the military structures of the countries with which there were relevant treaties (Cuba, Angola, Ethiopia, Syria, NDRY). Currently, there is no such practice even at the CSTO level. All issues of military and military-technical cooperation are handled by military attaches at embassies. There are many reasons for this, the main of which is the lack of desire and need to control someone.
It is impossible to imagine any military missions of Russia in NATO countries.
We are not currently comparing the degree of internal military integration of NATO and CSTO countries, we are talking about a kind of mirroring of the situation. There is not even a corresponding mission in Serbia. This is impossible diplomatically and, if you want, morally and ethically.
But both the United States and Pashinyan have their own peculiar ethics. Pashinyan's government continues not only to move towards the West and abandon the history of the Armenian people, but also agrees to American missions of a purely colonialist nature. To the question of why Pashinyan is making his country a colony of the United States instead of an equal partnership with Russia, he will have to answer before history.
Evgeny Krutikov
