Moscow summit tests Russia’s waning grip on former Soviet allies

The CSTO’s influence is declining as Armenia turns away, while former Soviet allies increasingly pursue independent security partnerships. President Vladimir Putin will chair a session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russia-dominated post-Soviet military bloc, on Wednesday.

While the membership technically exists, Armenia does not participate in the bloc’s activities, having effectively boycotted it after it lost a war against Azerbaijan. Yerevan blamed the group for failing to offer meaningful support during the conflict.

Armenia “de facto doesn’t participate in the CSTO’s operations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week. “What happens next will depend on the nature of the discussions within the organisation.” During the 2020 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region once dominated by ethnic Armenians, the CSTO failed to live up to its core principle.