Armenia’s Prime Minister has said his country’s policy of solely relying on Russia to guarantee its security was a strategic mistake because Moscow has been unable to deliver and is in the process of winding down its role in the wider region.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica published on Sunday, Nikol Pashinyan accused Russia of failing to ensure Armenia’s security in the face of what he said was aggression from neighbouring Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Pashinyan suggested that Moscow, which has a defence pact with Armenia and a military base there, did not regard his country as sufficiently pro-Russian and said he believed Russia was in the process of leaving the wider South Caucasus region.

Yerevan was therefore trying to diversify its security arrangements, he said, an apparent reference to its ties with the European Union and the United States and its attempts to forge closer ties with other countries in the region.

“Armenia’s security architecture was 99.999 per cent linked to Russia, including when it came to the procurement of arms and ammunition,” Pashinyan told La Repubblica.

“But today we see that Russia itself is in need of weapons, arms and ammunition (for the war in Ukraine) and in this situation, it’s understandable that even if it wishes so, the Russian Federation cannot meet Armenia’s security needs.

“This example should demonstrate to us that dependence on just one partner in security matters is a strategic mistake.”

His words underscore resentment inside Armenia about what many there see as a failure by Russia to defend their interests.