Western countries are “courting” Armenia and want to “be friends with Yerevan against Moscow”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel (via TASS).

“The Western countries that are now actively courting Armenia, they want to be friends with it against the Russian Federation,” he said.

According to Lavrov, the Russian Federation has no prejudices against Armenia’s external partners; Yerevan must independently determine its course.

“We are for Armenia, as a member of the CSTO, as our close ally, a strategic partner, to determine for itself how to build relations with external partners,” he said.

“We have absolutely no prejudices regarding the circle of its external partners, friends, whatever you want to call it. We are never make friends with anyone against anyone.”

Armenia’s relationship with the CSTO and Russia has steadily deteriorated in the last few years. Yerevan has been complaining about a lack of support from its allies in the conflict with Azerbaijan. The tensions between Yerevan and Moscow rose further after Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.