The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), commenting on Armenia's not making its contribution to the CSTO budget, told RIA Novosti that Yerevan had payment debts to this budget in the past as well. Armenian MFA press secretary Ani Badalyan had announced that Yerevan will refrain from joining the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council of November 23, 2023 "On the CSTO 2024 Budget" and participating in the funding of the activities of this organization provided for therein. Commenting on this situation, the Russian MFA noted that "this is not the first statement by Yerevan to ‘freeze’ its participation and stop CSTO funding." "Regarding the essence of the matter, debts of the organization's budget payments, including from Armenia, have arisen in the past," says the Russian MFA. They added that "at that time, the problems of funding the Organization's activities were solved by using existing reserves, and the ‘debtors’ later repaid their debts." "The contribution of the shares of the Republic of Armenia in 2024 was set at the amount of 53.22 million rubles," the Russian MFA statement notes as well.