President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan kicked off a meeting at the Kremlin on Wednesday, following a day-long summit of Eurasian Economic Union member-states chaired by the Armenian prime minister.
It is Pashinyan’s first visit to Moscow and first in-person meeting with Putin since December, 2023, when Armenia assumed the presidency of the EEU.
“Since then,” Pashinyan said during public comments ahead of the meeting, “several issues have accumulated that need to be discussed. Of course, the economic aspect of those issues were discussed at the [EEU] council meeting. And now I hope we can discuss important issues of bilateral relations, regional issues.”
Putin praised relations with Armenia, saying that they are progressing well, adding that “we always, first and foremost, focus on economic relations.”
Relations between Yerevan and Moscow have deteriorated significantly, with Pashinyan and his allies often accusing Russia and Putin of not fulfilling their responsibilities as outlined in various agreements and treaties.
Ahead of the meeting, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov underscored the importance of the meeting, the talks were “necessary and anticipated for both sides.”
Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov announced the meeting on Monday, the day that Pashinyan’s ally, Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, said that the prime minister would not attend the Russian leader’s inauguration, which took place on Tuesday.
Ushakov told reporters that “this bilateral contact will be very substantive, there will be many issues for discussion.”
“Recently, problematic issues have emerged in relations between Russia and Armenia, which, as we expect, will be openly discussed between the leaders,” Ushakov said.
“You know that Pashinyan himself said in April that relations with Moscow are not going through the best of times. Recently, contacts between our countries at various levels have noticeably decreased. Criticism has been addressed both to Russia and to the CSTO,” Ushakov added.
Speaking about the problems with the CSTO, the Kremlin representative recalled that Yerevan has de facto frozen its participation in the organization, although it has not yet withdrawn from it.
