France and other NATO countries will bring Armenia to complete poverty, the first deputy speaker of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Alexey Zhuravlev told News.ru.

Zhuravlev described the decision of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to suspend Armenia's participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a "fit of courage."

"It seems that Pashinyan’s next attack of 'courage' is connected with this fact, as he suddenly decided to suspend Armenia's participation in the CSTO. It is clear that he has been focusing on NATO countries for a long time, but for some reason it was Moscow that always had to regulate relations between Baku and Yerevan," he said.

According to the Russian MP, Pashinyan, with his "openly Western orientation," himself recognized that Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan.

"The French advisers, together with thousands of employees of the US Embassy in Yerevan, will bring Armenia to complete poverty, or maybe put the country on the brink of existence. Paris milked half of Africa for a long time, until they came to their senses and the French military advisers were kicked out in disgrace," the parliament member said.

Earlier, Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia's participation in the CSTO is currently frozen.

www.anews.az