Despite its failure to help it in the Karabakh battles, Russia is establishing two military sites in Armenia, near the borders of Azerbaijan.

The Acting Prime Minister of Armenia said today, Monday, that the Russian army has established two new military sites in the south of his country near the borders of Azerbaijan as an "additional security guarantee" after last year's conflict, Russian news agencies reported.

The move gives Russia a greater foothold in a region to which it sent additional forces last year to keep peace under an agreement that ended a six-week war during which Azerbaijani forces made major gains on the ground against the Armenians.

Russia is a close ally of Armenia, a poor ex-Soviet republic of less than 3 million people.

Moscow already has a military base in the southwest of the country, and sent 2,000 peacekeepers to the Nagorno Karabakh region, an Azeri enclave inhabited by ethnic Armenians, under an agreement that ended last year's fighting in the region.

Pashinyan was forced to resign on the back of claims after the defeat in Karabakh (Reuters)

Despite the existence of an agreement on military cooperation between Russia and Armenia, Moscow did not intervene militarily or provide the support requested by its ally Yerevan during the battles with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh region, as it is not considered an Armenian territory.

The Russian Interfax news agency quoted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying to Parliament, "Two strongholds of the Russian military base 102 in Syunik region have been established," referring to the Russian military base already in Armenia.

"This is an additional security guarantee not only for the Syunik region, but for Armenia as well," added the Acting Prime Minister of Armenia.

Syunik is a strategic sector of Armenia, sandwiched between Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Nakhchivan strip, and Iran.

The Armenian Defense Minister said in February that his country wanted Moscow to extend its presence and deploy troops near Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan remained in the position as Acting Prime Minister after he resigned from his post last month, amid a dispute with the army over responsibility for the outcome of the war (with Azerbaijan), which is considered a humiliating defeat.

And set for June 20 for new elections.