The peculiarity of Russia's Caucasian policy is the differentiated approach to establishing relations not only with the known South Caucasus countries, but also with Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Grigory Tishchenko, Head of the Center for Euro-Atlantic and Defense Studies at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, said in his online interview when replying to ArmInfo's question.
"For us it is a big geopolitical discomfort, because one has to split up the erstwhile single space, which is perceived as "Transcaucasia" and spend the potentials on forcible reflexive response. The reflexes are the response to the political, military-political or just "hot" military irritations, which unfortunately very often exceed the pain threshold for Russia. Such an approach cannot be considered the best variant for the security of the South Caucasus countries. Unfortunately, it is still impossible to create a regional or a wider security system in the region with Russia's participation", he said.
The expert believes that in the system of Russian interests Armenia is one of the obvious priorities given the readiness of Yerevan and Armenia people to participate in development of integration processes in the post-Soviet area. Tishchenko thinks that this readiness is especially appreciated given the disruption of integration processes in the Eurasian area, first of all, due to the final withdrawal of Ukraine to the West's sphere of influence. "They have also started to speak about Moldova and Georgia as auxiliary directions. Something similar seems to be happening around Azerbaijan as well. But Ukraine is an absolute focus of threats against Russia's security", he said.
The interview was given with the support of the UK Embassy in Armenia in the framework of the Region Research Center's Topical Dialogues for Armenian Media project.