Kremlin dismisses Armenian PM’s suggestion that Russia is quitting

The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected a suggestion by Armenia’s prime minister that Russia had failed to protect Armenia amid its standoff with neighbouring Azerbaijan, and was winding down its role in the wider region.
In an interview with an Italian newspaper published on Sunday, Nikol Pashinyan accused Russia of failing to ensure Armenia’s security in the face of what he said was aggression from Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Pashinyan also said Armenia felt Russia was pulling back from the wider South Caucasus region, which includes his country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Russia, which has a military base in Armenia and has sent peacekeepers to uphold a ceasefire deal, planned to continue playing an important role in stabilising the South Caucasus and had no plans to wind down its activities there.