Former Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha has stated that Armenia should be expelled from the CSTO because it no longer participates in the organization’s activities, while the bloc remains obliged to coordinate all decisions with Yerevan.
“If they suspend their participation but do not withdraw, they remain full members of the CSTO. And if they are full CSTO members, that means all decisions — and decisions in the CSTO are made by consensus — must be adopted with their position taken into account. Yet that position today essentially contradicts everything being done within the CSTO,” Bordyuzha explained, according to RIA Novosti.
He expressed the view that the more appropriate course of action for Yerevan would be to withdraw from the organization. However, if the Armenian side is unwilling to make such a decision, Bordyuzha believes Armenia should be expelled.
“I would expel them. They do not pay membership fees and do not participate in the organization’s work. If we take the matter seriously, they should simply leave the organization if they are genuinely serious partners. But since they maintain a contradictory position — we will not leave, we will not work, we will not participate, and we do not want to — they should be expelled,” Bordyuzha stated.
Earlier, CSTO Secretary General Taalatbek Masadykov announced that the issue of Armenia’s expulsion from the organization could be raised at the CSTO Collective Security Council meeting scheduled for November 11, 2026, in Moscow.
The CSTO’s current members are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Armenia announced in 2024 that it was “freezing” its participation in the organization, although the CSTO Charter does not provide for such a procedure. Yerevan subsequently also stopped paying membership fees.
