Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia on Thursday, March 28 when he accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government of ruining bilateral relations.

“I already had to comment on the current situation regarding Armenia; it of course does not inspire optimism,” he told the Moscow daily Izvestia (via RFE/RL’s Armenian service).

“Frankly, the Armenian leadership, under far-fetched pretexts, distorting the history of the last three or three and a half years, is deliberately leading things to the collapse of relations with the Russian Federation.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry already accused Pashinian’s administration of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian ties last fall, reacting to its intensifying efforts to reorient Armenia towards the West. Lavrov warned early this month that Moscow will seriously “reconsider” those ties if Yerevan continues drifting away from the Russian orbit.

Pashinyan and his entourage say they have to “diversify” Armenia’s traditional foreign policy because of what they call Russia’s failure to honor its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally