{"id":2028674,"date":"2023-09-11T21:52:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T01:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-close-russian-ally-may-be-gravitating-toward-the-us-amid-regional-turmoil\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T21:53:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T01:53:03","slug":"a-close-russian-ally-may-be-gravitating-toward-the-us-amid-regional-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-close-russian-ally-may-be-gravitating-toward-the-us-amid-regional-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian ally leaning towards US amidst regional chaos."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-close-russian-ally-may-be-gravitating-toward-the-us-amid-regional-turmoil%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2028674&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Armenia&#8217;s Shifting Alliances: Looking Beyond \u200cRussia<\/h2>\n<p>After three years of regional turmoil, Armenia, \u2064once a solid Russian ally, has begun to expand \u2063its\u200b choice of partners.<\/p>\n<p>The Caucasian country \u2063has been a close ally \u200bof Russia since before World War I, when it saw Russia as \u2062its only means of survival against the genocidal Ottoman\u200d Empire.\u200b The relationship was taken up with equal vigor upon the country&#8217;s \u200bindependence from the Soviet Union in 1991 when it needed a\u2064 protector against its much larger neighbors, Turkey and Azerbaijan. This has continued without \u200cmuch \u200btrouble up until the past few years when frustrations over \u200cRussia&#8217;s actions during Armenia&#8217;s war\u2063 with Azerbaijan led to feelings of abandonment. Now, \u2063some signs\u2062 point to Armenia looking \u2062elsewhere for protection, particularly\u2064 toward the United States.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The Pashinyan regime clearly wants to \u200dleave the Russian\u2064 orbit for the West, or \u200dat \u200bthe very least\u2064 balance Armenia&#8217;s dependence \u200bon Moscow,&#8221; <strong>Robert Nicholson<\/strong>, president and founder of the Philos Project, a group dedicated to\u2062 protecting Christians abroad, told the Washington\u2063 Examiner. &#8220;Armenia has \u200bseen that Russia is not a reliable protector, especially after Putin&#8217;s \u2064invasion of Ukraine and failure to lift the \u2062nine-month Azerbaijani blockade on Karabakh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He further argued \u200dthat Armenia is closer to the \u200cWest in terms of culture and politics, particularly after its \u20632018 Velvet \u200dRevolution.<\/p>\n<h3>Tensions and Friction<\/h3>\n<p>Growing tensions between Russia and Armenia were highlighted in \u2064recent days \u200cwhen the Russian foreign ministry summoned the Armenian ambassador to protest the leadership of Armenia&#8217;s &#8220;series of unfriendly steps.&#8221; Among other things, Russia took issue with Armenia&#8217;s\u200d sending of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-close-russian-ally-may-be-gravitating-toward-the-us-amid-regional-turmoil\/\" title=\"Russian ally leaning towards US amidst regional chaos.\">upcoming small military exercise<\/a> with American troops, \u200dwhich will include 175 Armenian troops and 85\u200d American troops.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these signs of friction, a former senior official in the Armenian government, \u2064speaking with \u2062the\u2062 Washington Examiner,\u200c cautioned against leaping to too ambitious of conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, \u2063Armenia&#8217;s overtures\u2063 toward the West \u2062are not intended as slights against Russia but are\u200c primarily seen as the small Caucasian country simply engaging with the international community on a sovereign basis.<\/p>\n<p>Another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/training-motivation-tips-to-increase-your-mental-game\/\" title=\"Training Motivation \u2013 Tips to Increase Your Mental Game\">key element missing<\/a> in analyses optimistic about Armenia abandoning Russia for the West is that the Armenian public feels \u200balmost equally betrayed by the European Union. The senior\u200b official said the phrase &#8220;value-based relationship&#8221; has become\u200d a term of mockery among Armenians \u2064following European Commission\u200b President Ursula\u2063 von der Leyen&#8217;s use of the term during a trip to \u200bAzerbaijan last year when\u200d she\u200d took a praiseful approach toward the country in \u2063an effort to secure non-Russian oil. The contrast between the West&#8217;s reaction to the War in Ukraine and the Armenian-Azerbaijani\u2062 War has also\u2064 become \u2063a source\u200d of bitterness,\u200c according to the official.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also the issue of the\u2064 limits of U.S.\u2063 support in \u2064the region. The official cited the example \u2064of Georgia, where\u200d U.S. diplomats warn Tbilisi against making too overt overtures in fear of enraging Moscow. Overestimating Western support led to a short but devastating war in 2008, one that Armenia\u200d is cautious not to recreate.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, tensions between Yerevan and Baku have begun\u200b to\u2064 heat\u200d up once again, with \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vladimir-putin-to-hold-summit-with-chinas-xi-jinping-as-beijing-olympics-begin\/\" title=\"Vladimir Putin to Hold Summit with China\u2019s Xi Jinping as Beijing Olympics Begin\">military buildups<\/a> on both\u200c sides. The official believes that a \u200drenewal of the 2020 war is likely and reliant on the \u2062calculations of \u2063Baku\u200b and whether \u200bthey think another invasion would be\u2062 sustainable. At the current rate, he warned that it might \u2064be.<\/p>\n<p><em>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\">here<\/a> for more \u200cfrom the Washington Examiner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After three years of regional turmoil, Armenia, a former staunch Russian ally, is now diversifying its partnerships. Historically, Armenia relied on Russia as its sole means of survival against the genocidal Ottoman Empire before World War I. However, the country is now exploring new alliances, marking a shift in their long-standing relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2028675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2028675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}