>

Well thats one less friend of Putin, keeps getting better and better.
Can't blame the Armenians for this. The Russians have been surprisingly useless in protecting them from Azerbaijan. Why would they commit to deepening the relationship at this point? Russia can't offer them jack. >

Russia offers less than nothing. A deepening relationship with what is now a Pariah state for a lot of the world can be actively harmful and comes with diplomatic downsides. Add to this the lack of CSTO support and Russia's treatment of other states in its alleged sphere of influence. The juice is not worth the squeeze for Armenia. >

And Russia can at any time decide they need a win and turn their training forces into invasion forces that already are in the country they are invading.