Armenia is taking a new step towards emancipation from Russian domination. This former Soviet republic in the Caucasus will gradually assume responsibility for securing its borders with Iran and Turkey, which have been guarded exclusively by Russian troops for over 30 years. Under an agreement announced on October 8 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian border guards will withdraw from a checkpoint on the border with Iran as of January 1, 2025.

"The Russians won't be leaving the Iranian border just yet," says Richard Giragosian, founding director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan. "Only this checkpoint will pass into the hands of Armenian border guards." The agreement also provides for Yerevan's troops to take part in guarding the border with Turkey alongside Russian forces, who are already in position there.

Strategic disengagement for Russia

"This is a milestone for Armenia," said the researcher. "The country is regaining its sovereignty and reaffirming its independence from Russia by gradually taking control of its borders for the first time since the Soviet Union." The presence of Russian border guards along the Iran-Turkey border was agreed in 1992, one year after the collapse of the USSR.

For Russia, this partial disengagement from the border is also strategic. "In exchange," continued Giragosian, "Yerevan is to authorize Moscow to take part in operations to establish roads and railroads to link Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan," the Azerbaijani exclave to the southwest of Armenia to which Baku wants land access. Before the invasion of Ukraine, "Russia asserted its power by force [in the region], whereas today it is through greater connectivity [transport links]."

On July 31, Russian border guards had already withdrawn from Yerevan's Zvartnots international airport, after a presence of 32 years. Armenia had informed Moscow that these units were no longer needed and that the Armenian National Security Service would carry out border controls independently, without Russian assistance. Russia, Armenia's traditional ally, had warned the Armenian government against causing "irreparable damage" to their already strained relations, but an agreement was eventually reached in May for the withdrawal of these border guards before August 1.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in autumn 2020, which resulted in Armenia's crushing defeat by Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers deployed in this disputed enclave remained passive after Baku's offensive.

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