While pro-Western Armenians cheer enthusiastically over what the former NATO chief, now the owner of a consulting firm, said in Yerevan, Armenian journalist and blogger Alison Tahmizian Meuse, a graduate of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, who has worked for such major international publications as Agence France-Press, NPR and Asia Times, reveals the juicy details of his mission. Amid the general euphoria, Ms. Tahmizian turns on the “cold shower”, tweeting: “In case you thought Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Armenia out of altruism, or on behalf of NATO in any capacity … The Armenian government is paying him for this”, and posting relevant screenshots of evidence with a clear indication of the amount: €150,000 to €400,000 per job.
In case you thought Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in Armenia out of altruism, or on behalf of NATO in any capacity…
The Armenian government is paying him for this.
https://t.co/SniX0ssq2P pic.twitter.com/7RYjVKijVE— Alison Tahmizian Meuse (@AliTahmizian) March 16, 2023
The Armenian journalist thus corroborates the information previously made public in Azerbaijani mass media: Mr. Rasmussen is nothing more than a paid lobbyist hired by the Armenian authorities, and it is too presumptuous to take his words as “the consolidated position of the West”.
The mere fact that a former chief of the North Atlantic Alliance takes paid lobbying jobs, especially from a Kremlin satellite, is rather unsavory.
But the main questions are to the government of Armenia. A member of the EEU and the CSTO that enjoys many privileges offered by Moscow. Russia supplies Armenia with oil and gas at domestic prices, keeps its infrastructure, from railroads to power grids and cellular communications, afloat, protects its borders, and provides air defense…
Armenia expects and makes it clear that it is Moscow’s duty to “pull back” the Azerbaijani troops from the area around Istisu (“Jermuk”), where the border is not yet delimited, to open the Lachin corridor, and to disperse the protest rally of Azerbaijani environmental activists.
Just recently, the CSTO Secretary General visited Yerevan to discuss the security of Armenia’s borders. At the same time, Yerevan invites the former NATO Secretary General, pays him substantial, for Armenia, sums of money, hinting meaningfully that a real NATO infrastructure will emerge in Armenia any day now. How realistic these hopes are is a rhetorical question. Rasmussen is simply working off his “150 to 400 thousand euros” and nothing more. But these games are an outright betrayal on Armenia’s part. And neither its old nor its new masters are fond of traitors.
Former NATO chief Rasmussen under investigation by Latvian police
