BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25
By Jani Babayeva - Trend:
Armenia has shown its irresponsibility in terms of use and possession of missile weapons, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko told Trend.
Commenting on the words of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the low efficiency of the Russian Iskander missile systems during the second Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh war, Korotchenko stressed that this statement reflects the nature of the internal political showdown.
“The topic of Russian weapons was brought up artificially, Pashinyan needed it to damage Armenian ex-President Serzh Sargsyan's information server,” the expert added.
“It is very sad that one way or another, the topic of Russia and Russian weapons is touched upon in the internal Armenian political showdown, especially in a negative context," Korotchenko said.
“The Russian weapons, including the Iskander missiles, supplied to Armenia are a highly effective means of warfare, high-precision, modern and meeting the requirements of the 21st century,” the expert said.
“But if Armenia is poorly prepared from the point of view of the professionalism of the army, then probably the reasons for these problems should be sought within Armenia itself, rather than trying to put the whole responsibility on Russia,” Korotchenko said. “Moreover, such actions do not correspond to the status of Armenia as a strategic partner of Russia and a member of the CSTO. Pashinyan's rhetoric is not just erroneous, but hostile towards Russia.”
“Russia has supplied modern systems to Armenia, which it has not learned to properly use and apply, and now it is trying to blame Russia,” the expert said.
“Russia will draw conclusions from this situation in practical terms,” Korotchenko said.
“In general, Armenia has shown its irresponsibility in terms of the use and possession of missile weapons,” the expert said. “We remember the night strikes on the Azerbaijani city populated by civilians, on civilian facilities - all this was done by Armenia. Thus, there is no difference between Pashinyan and Saddam Hussain.”
“It is obvious that Armenia is not ready either from a moral or a political point of view to possess such a weapon,” Korotchenko said. “Therefore, further supplies of Iskander to Armenia must be stopped. The entire missile potential of Armenia must be transferred to the Russian military at the military base in Gyumri."