Without the Russian military base deployed in Armenia, the weight of Armenia as a geo-political factor would grow much, Director of the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies, Manvel Sargsyan, told ArmInfo correspondent.
'Nobody can make me agree that the Russian military base in Armenia truly strengthens Armenia and ensures its security. Actually, why does a big Russia needs a small territory of Armenia? Does not Russia have other territories to deploy its troops? I think that Russia itself needs the base to ensure its presence in the South Caucasus. So, Russia depends on Armenia not less but even more", - the expert said. He also added that at the beginning of the 90-s the authorities of independent Armenia adopted a wrong decision signing an agreement with Russia on deployment of the Russian troops in Armenia.
He said that Armenia battered Azerbaijani army, the latter was not dangerous to Armenia any more. For this reason, there was no need to deploy Russian military base in Armenia. "When a strategic ally is far away, it is really an ally, but when the ally's troops are deployed at the territory of your country, in that case the core and quality of these relations sharply change", - Sargsyan said. He is confident that without the Russian military base and unilateral dependence of Armenia on Moscow, in the context of the military and technical cooperation, Yerevan would be a more attractive partner at the world arena. "Undoubtedly, we would find an alternative to the Russian armament. Many countries would ask Armenia to buy their armament", - Sargsyan concluded.