The policy of the Armenian authorities is based on fear, well-known political scientist, Head of the Center for National and International Studies Manvel Sargsyan said in an interview to ArmInfo, when asked to comment on Armenia's pro-Russian position on Crimea and its decision to vote against the UN GA's relevant resolution.
According to Sargsyan, Armenia is facing an unprecedented and very dangerous situation, which comes from the serious changes that are taking place in the international balance of forces. "We may lose a lot if we fail to fit into the new logic of international relations," Sargsyan said. The expert believes that Armenia is implementing a very short-sighted policy by binding itself tightly to Russia and leaving itself no room for maneuver. "History has lots of examples that you must not 'hang' on an agonizing country," Sargsyan said.
He explained that today Ukraine is going through a hard process of building a political nation on the basis on a national idea but without a national program. "This idea has huge energy manifested in resolute unwillingness to obey to Russia. And the roots of this powerful process are in Russia, where people's mentality is also transforming. Today most of the Russian intellectuals believe that the Russians are even more unfree than the Byelorussians or the Ukrainians. Such civilizational shifts are taking place in many Russian regions, and if galvanized by the Maidan, they may become a kind of Perestroika- 2, the rebuilding of Russia from an empire into a national state," Sargsyan said.
He believes that Putin's Bonapartism is based on oligarchy and corruption and is aimed to prevent undesirable processes. No coincidence that the Russian intelligentsia is voicing the need for decolonizing Russia and eliminating its imperial spirit. "The parade of sovereignties in Europe – something they in the Kremlin are referring to as an excuse for the annexation of Crimea – may some day reach Russia," Sargsyan said.
He shares the opinion of the experts saying that the events in Ukraine may enhance the sovereignty of Russia's allies. The voting in the UN GA has proved this. Kazakhstan and some other Central Asian nations abstained from supporting Russia as they are well aware that they may face huge geopolitical risks if they keep allowing their strategic ally to use them. According to Sargsyan, the crisis in Ukraine has revealed strong discrepancy between the self-determination and territorial integrity principles. "Now this conflict has come up to the level of great powers. This makes the OSCE's future quite vague as the very principles that organization is based on are being disputed by its key members," Sargsyan said.