Transport tie: Russia insists on participating in the "Trump route"
J.D. Vance's tour of the South Caucasus is unprecedented: he became the first U.S. vice president to visit Yerevan, and a politician of this rank will arrive in Baku for the first time in the last 18 years. The central point of the visit is the promotion of the "Trump Road", a strategic transport corridor that allows bypassing Russia and Iran. At the same time, Moscow has already expressed interest in participating in the project — the Russian Federation has "reserved" its position on this issue, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Izvestia. Washington's large-scale infrastructure plans are based on an attempt to reduce the sphere of Russia's traditional influence and reformat the geopolitical map of the region under the control of the United States, experts believe.
U.S. Vice President visits Armenia
On February 9, American Vice President Jay D. Vance went on a rather unusual trip for this position - to the South Caucasus. The first point of the diplomatic route was Armenia, where negotiations with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place. This trip, as noted by international media, is intended to consolidate and support the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements reached earlier with the active mediation of Washington. Vance effectively combined his diplomatic mission with participation in the sports agenda: he arrived in the region immediately after attending the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where he headed the official US delegation.
The Vice President is accompanied on the tour by Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. It is noteworthy that the American negotiating team prepared the ground for the visit in advance — a team from Washington arrived in Yerevan in advance, occupying an entire floor in the capital's Armenia Marriott hotel for their needs. The U.S. delegation also plans to visit Azerbaijan, where major technological and defense contracts, including direct supplies of American equipment, are on the agenda.
In Yerevan, the main focus is on the topic of strategic nuclear cooperation. Although the specific parameters of future projects have not yet been announced, the reform of nuclear generation is being actively discussed in Armenia these days. On February 3, Davit Khudatyan, Minister of Territorial Administration, confirmed that the country had finally made a choice in favor of a modular nuclear power plant. The final decision on a specific model is expected in 2026 or 2027, while Yerevan is considering proposals from a wide range of players — Russia, the United States, China, France and South Korea. Following the talks between Vance and Pashinyan, Washington and Yerevan signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful atomism: the United States will invest $9 billion in the republic's nuclear energy sector.
The topic of NPP construction occupies an important place on the agenda of Moscow's relations with Yerevan and is regularly discussed at various levels, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Izvestia. On February 6, 2026, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev met with Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Alain Simonyan, and in September 2025, Nikol Pashinyan took part in the World Atomic Week in Moscow.
— Rosatom is ready to start implementing the project as soon as possible, of course, taking into account the wishes of our Armenian friends. There are no real alternatives in terms of the availability of reliable, already proven technologies, as well as the attractiveness of financial parameters, including taking into account construction, further operation, and the need for training and retraining of specialists," Mikhail Galuzin emphasized to Izvestia.
At the same time, the current visit of the US Vice President has an emphatically historical connotation. J.D. Vance's trip will be the first visit of an official of this level to Armenia during the entire period of bilateral contacts. Such high—ranking American officials have not appeared in Baku in the last 18 years, since the days of Dick Cheney in 2008. Such diplomatic activity looks unprecedented for the region and clearly indicates the new priorities of the White House in the South Caucasus.
"The main interest, in a nutshell, is to remove the countries of the Transcaucasus from the sphere of Russian influence: to separate the region from Russia and, possibly, create another hotbed of tension for it," Boris Martynov, professor of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia at MGIMO, said in an interview with Izvestia.
In this case, Washington also resorts to strengthening military-technical cooperation. Vance has already stated that the United States intends to supply Armenia with reconnaissance UAVs for $ 11 million, as well as transfer developments in their field of application for surveillance.
In general, the Transcaucasian countries have a key geostrategic importance, and this is where the logic of the Americans' actions should be seen, the expert added. It may also be a question of finally withdrawing Armenia from the CSTO and, possibly, from the EAEU, pushing it towards closer ties and agreements with the European Union.
What does TRIPP mean for Russia?
The United States intends to expand its influence in the region through the Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project, the central point of Vance's trip. We are talking about a 43-kilometer transport corridor through the southern part of Armenia, which should provide Azerbaijan with a direct connection between the main territory of the country and Nakhichevan with access to Turkey.
The official goal of the project is to "strengthen the prosperity and security of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as further develop American trade by expanding regional trade and transport accessibility." From the Americans' point of view, the route is designed to radically restructure trade and energy chains in Transcaucasia, linking Asia and Europe, bypassing Russia and Iran.
In addition to its transit function, TRIPP is designed to provide the United States with control over the flow of critical raw materials. It is planned to export uranium, copper, gold and rare earths from Central Asia through it.
The launch of TRIPP de facto transforms the South Caucasus from a "geopolitical dead end" into the central hub of the Middle Corridor, Nikolai Novik, deputy director of the Center for the Institute of World Military Economics and Strategy, told Izvestia.
"It is expected that the TRIPP integration will reduce the delivery time of goods from Central Asia to Europe from 18 to 12 days — a seamless railway and road connection is being created along the Azerbaijan—Armenia—Nakhichevan—Turkey line, bypassing longer routes through Georgia," the expert emphasized.
Pavel Seleznev, Dean of the Faculty of International Economic Relations at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, is confident that the new transport route will become an alternative to both the Northern Corridor through Russia and potential routes through Iran, which further strengthens Turkey's position as the main distribution hub on the southern flank of NATO.
"For Russia, the implementation of TRIPP in its current form, under the control of the United States, creates a set of challenges affecting both the economic and defense sectors," Seleznev added.
Washington's strategy has not been ignored by Moscow. Russia has already "reserved" its position on participation in TRIPP, Galuzin stressed. According to him, the Russian side is ready to consult with partners in Yerevan.
In Armenia, the issue of Russia's participation was ambiguously commented on — Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan publicly stated that Yerevan does not see the possibility of "connecting" Russia to the project, because "then all this will not work." Although earlier, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan allowed cooperation with Moscow, but without direct participation.
The project involves not only the construction of a railway, but also the deep integration of energy systems, including the laying of oil and gas pipelines, as well as fiber-optic communication lines. It is worth emphasizing that the main body of experience in unblocking regional communications has been accumulated within the framework of the trilateral format of cooperation between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia at the level of deputy prime ministers.
Moreover, the Russian Federation's position in the region's infrastructure remains fundamental: the South Caucasus Railway Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, has a concession to manage the entire railway network of Armenia until 2038, and the tracks themselves comply with the Russian gauge standard.
— The Russian railway gauge is used in the region. Our border guards are stationed on the Iranian-Armenian border. It is necessary to take into account the factor of Armenia's membership in the EAEU. In these circumstances, it is obvious that our partners cannot do without Russia," Galuzin stressed.
At the same time, the transfer by Armenia, a member of the EAEU and the CSTO, of the opportunity to administer a section of its territory to a foreign company (the future TRIPP Development Company) creates a precedent for "extraterritorial management" within the single economic space, Novik stressed. In turn, this will reduce Moscow's influence on the union's internal logistics.
Despite the fact that the "Washington framework" itself was fixed back in the summer of 2025 at the summit with the personal participation of Donald Trump, the implementation of the project still faces political obstacles. The key stumbling block remains Azerbaijan's demand to Yerevan to change the constitutional formulations in which Baku sees hidden territorial claims. Nevertheless, Vance's current visit shows that Washington, apparently, intends to finish the job and finally reformat the logistics map of the South Caucasus.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
