Konstantin Zatulin, a long-serving Russian Duma member from Putin’s United Russia ruling party, told Russian media outlet NSN that Russia may send airborne troops to aid Armenia through the Georgian airspace.
Senior Russian lawmaker noted that “we have to make it abundantly clear to Georgia that if need be, it should calmly accept that the necessary [Russian] forces and means will be sent to Armenia through its airspace.”
“We have been compelled to take this decision, as we are seeing the spread of mercenaries in the Caucasus, from which Russia, Georgia and everyone else will suffer,” Zatulian underscored.
Senior Russian lawmaker’s statement comes as Baku and Yerevan are for 26 days now engaging in the deadliest fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since the end of the original Karabakh war in 1994.
Yerevan, which is part of Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), may request Russia’s military assistance if the territory and sovereignty of Armenia is threatened, but the military bloc’s commitment to Armenia does not cover fighting on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The National Security Council (NSC) of Georgia said earlier on October 3 amid renewed Armenia-Azerbaijani clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, that “since the inception of escalation, [Tbilisi] temporarily suspended the issuance of permits for transiting military cargo through its territory in the direction of both countries, be it by air or land.”
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