The geopolitical chessboard of the South Caucasus is being reshaped as Armenia boldly shifts its orientation toward the West. January has witnessed a flurry of strategic moves: Yerevan approved a bill initiating its bid to join the European Union and inked a Charter of Strategic Partnership with the United States in Washington.

The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the West is inciting Yerevan to destroy ties with Moscow. This is stated in the Russian Foreign Ministry's answers to media questions received for Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's press conference.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in Moscow that his current trip had been preparing for three months, but was postponed for technical reasons. We believe that among the "technical reasons",

At a meeting with his Armenian counterpart in Moscow, Lavrov said the Kremlin was ready to assist in the normalisation of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. View on euronews

Azerbaijan has shown its ambitions extend to sovereign territory in Armenia: the seizure of the so-called Zangezur corridor in southern Armenia, in the region of Syunik.

The freshest details regarding the crash of an Embraer 190 aircraft belonging to Azerbaijan’s AZAL company near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, have been revealed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also spoke about the Armenian leadership taking issue with Belarus. “They took issue with me for supporting Azerbaijan. I have always supported common sense. I have always been against war,

Lavrov responded that while Moscow has strategic partnerships and allied relationships with Armenia as well as with Azerbaijan it has a “vested interest” in seeing Armenia and Azerbaijan normalize their relations.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia values its close relations with Armenia and that the United States, which is set to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Armenia, had never played a stabilising role in the region.

The synopsis provides a brief overview of the article's content, highlighting the contrast between Western claims of promoting democracy and their actions. However, it lacks a compelling hook that would entice readers to engage with the full article.

January 2025 may go down as Armenia’s geopolitical inflection point, a time when Yerevan decisively moved to shun its longtime protector Russia and pin its political and economic future on integration with Western institutions, thus scrambling the strategic balance in the Caucasus.

"According to our estimates, the lifting or easing of sanctions against Russia and Iran, which could potentially have a significant impact on Armenia's economy, is unlikely in 2025. Therefore, the risks associated with secondary sanctions will remain relevant for Armenia in 2025," it said.