the CIS region. The head of the
Federation Council's Foreign Relations Committee Konstantin Kosachev described
the summer 2015 protests in Armenia as bearing "all the hallmarks of a
colored revolution." Elites close to Kremlin insinuated that Western-backed NGOs had a hand in fomenting instability in Yerevan. Sargasyan's
new found sense of vulnerability implored Russia to tighten its
alliance with Armenia. In late October, the Russian government proposed
the creation of a joint air defense mechanism with Armenia as part of a
broader plan to create a CSTO aerial umbrella extending to Central Asia. Armenia also received a $200 million loan
from Russia, which would be used to purchase long-range weapons and
military hardware vital for the modernization of its military.

The
sale of arms at discounted prices during a period of economic crisis in
Russia and a brewing debt crisisin Armenia is a telling sign of
Putin's commitment to preserving the bilateral relationship. It also
repaired the strains created by the January slaying of an Armenian family
by a Russian soldier, an event that caused Regional Studies Center
director Richard Giragosian to speculate that an end to Armenia's
security dependence on Russia was near. In addition to stoking
fears of uncontrolled popular revolutions that could diffuse to Russia,
Armenia has curried Russian patronage by exploiting regional crises. The
recent inflammation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been at least
partially attributed to Armenian provocation. Azerbaijan's defense
ministry on October 1 accused Armenia of violating the ceasefire 80 times a day by using heavy machine guns and mortar shells.

In
tandem with these escalations, Russia has become increasingly
confrontational in its rhetoric about the Karabakh conflict. Russian
ambassador to the OSCE Aleksandr Lukashevich
recently