Armenia is turning against its erstwhile guardian, Russia

RUSSIA isclose to losing one of its last old friends: Armenia. The Kremlin is irritated by the country’s recent overtures to America, Europe and Ukraine. Armenia says Russia has abandoned its pledge to protect it from Azerbaijan. In October, Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister, accused Russia of trying to overthrow his government. Moscow did little to deny it: its state media quoted an anonymous high-ranking source accusing Mr Pashinyan of “following in the steps of [Ukraine’s President Volodymyr] Zelensky”.Mr Pashinyan, a critical journalist, came to power in 2018 after protests overthrew a Russia-friendly regime. But he tried to keep the Kremlin onside, even sending Armenian forces to co-operate with Russia’s interventions in Syria and Kazakhstan. Relations nevertheless began to sour in 2020, when Russia stayed largely neutral while Azerbaijan bested Armenia in an attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian enclave. Still, after that war Russia sent 2,000 peacekeepers.