Armenian prime minister says Russia failed to supply prepaid arms deliveries, proposes debt reduction instead

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia had paid Russia “millions of dollars” for arms supplies as part of a bilateral contract, but has not yet received any.

Pashinyan said he realizes that Russia “needs arms itself” now, and suggested that the issue of arms supplies can be solved in a variety of ways, including the reduction of Armenia’s debt to Russia.

In May, the Secretary for the Armenian Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, said that Russia hadn’t supplied the weapons for which Armenia had already paid. Russia has not officially reported any recent military contracts with Armenia.

On November 22, the Armenian newspaper Zhogorvud referenced sources who said that the contract was for the delivery of Smerch missiles and that it was signed several years ago. According to the newspaper, the missiles were ready prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian side reportedly offered to take the weapons out of the warehouses on three different occasions, but Armenia did not do so. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia started using the missiles itself.