The frozen conflict of Nagorno-Karabaakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, has generated vast weapons sales for Russia to both sides. Belarus has just been stymied on getting in on the bonanza in a larger way. Eurasia.net reports Armenia has prevented the sale of Polenezes missiles from Belarus to Azerbaijan, Armenia’s arch enemy.
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“But now a Belarusian military analyst, Aleksander Alesin, has said that Armenia succeeded in blocking that deal. “We wanted to sell Polonezes to Azerbaijan,” he told Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “But Armenia, our partner in the CSTO, was against it,” he said, referring to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Russia-led military alliance. “The deal didn’t work out, and probably the first [export] customer for the Polonez will be Kazakhstan,” Alesin said,” reported Eurasia.net.
Russian media outlet ‘Sputnik’ added to the commentary on the situation, “Our source reported that Armenia, at the very highest level, pointed out that deals threatening the balance of forces in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were unacceptable.”
“In his [the source’s] words, until now Yerevan has closed its eyes to the fact that Belarus has over the years delivered a great quantity of weapons and military equipment, helped modernize Azerbaijan’s fighters and strike aircraft Su-25 and Su-27, but now Armenia has decided to not stay quiet.”
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Armenia is part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, which, led by Russia, provides for a common defense with the former Soviet nations of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
