INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Kremlin said Thursday that it "regretted" Armenia's decision to skip a summit of a Moscow-led security alliance, amid a souring of
relations between the two ex-Soviet allies.Neither Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan nor his defense minister showed up to a meeting
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk on Thursday, which comes as Russia worries Yerevan could pull out of the
alliance altogether.When asked to comment on the absence of Armenia's delegation, the Kremlin said: "We can express regret in this
regard.""We hope that Armenia does not change the vector of its foreign policy and remains our ally..
We will continue to talk to them," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.Tensions between the two
countries have run high since September, when Russian peacekeepers failed to intervene in Azerbaijan's lightning offensive against ethnic
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.In a televised address after the conflict, Pashinyan denounced Armenia's traditional security alliance with
Russia as "insufficient" and called on Yerevan to seek new partners.Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was "reckless" for Armenia
to think it could rely on the West for security, and slammed Yerevan for "radically" changing its foreign policy.Armenia's high-level snub
marks yet another blow to bilateral relations, after Pashinyan shunned a summit attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin in October.
