Naryshkin praised the current state of Russian-Armenian relations after holding talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Armen Abazian, the head of Armenia’s National Security Service.
“I must say that cooperation of our countries is developing positively in the economic, military-political and humanitarian areas,” he told Russian media outlets afterwards. “Interaction between special services is part of that cooperation, and I obviously discussed with my [Armenian] counterpart exchange of intelligence information, joint actions for the purpose of identifying and forestalling a whole range of external threats to Russia and Armenia.”
“Our consultations will continue. We are drawing up a plan of joint work for the coming years,” he said.
Naryshkin did not specify those threats. But he did accuse “liberal-totalitarian regimes in the West” of trying to destabilize various parts of the world, including Ukraine, to preserve what he called an “unjust” world order which is crumbling now.
Armenia has refrained from publicly criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The South Caucasus state has long maintained close military, political and economic ties with Russia. Its heavy dependence on Moscow for defense and security deepened further after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian met Naryshkin three days after receiving William Burns, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Armenian government reported few details of those talks.
The Russian intelligence chief insisted on Monday that his visit to Armenia is “not connected” with Burns’s surprise trip. Washington has declined to comment on the trip.