ASTANA. Nov 28 (Interfax) - As a sovereign country, Armenia is entitled to decide on its own what alliance to be part of, based on its national security interests, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"In my opinion, any member state of the organization [Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO] should decide for itself what meets its national interests, and we'll treat this with respect," Putin said when asked by journalists to comment on Armenia's freezing its participation in the CSTO.
That said, Armenia might as well resume its full-format participation in the CSTO, Putin said.
"Armenia has said it is taking a pause, but it hasn't declared its withdrawal from the organization, and it supports all documents that have been adopted at today's meeting, and it's drawn our attention to this. If this is so, then there's a chance that Armenia will resume its full-format work within the CSTO. Well, we shall see," he said.