“We’ve heard everything you can think of regarding Armenian-Russian relations. A member of the Republican Party was shedding tears about how poor Armenian-Russian relations are,” Nikol Pashinyan announced at the gathering to celebrate his 100th day in office. He mocked the Republicans. “Oh no, look at how terrible the state of Armenian-Russian relations is! Our colleagues in Russia have not even rated the past events in Armenia in their entirety. Therefore, talking about bad relations is laughable.” The prime minister reminded everyone that he had already met with President of Russia Vladimir Putin twice, and had spoken to him three times on the phone. “Armenian-Russian relations are not only not bad, but to the dismay of Republicans, they’re good and will only get better.”
According to Pashinyan, one of the goals of the new government is to deepen the close ties between Armenia and Russia and raise the relations to a new level. “After all the appropriate procedures take place, everyone will know about the new Armenian-Russian humanitarian project, which is unprecedented in the history of the independent Armenia. That is proof that we are moving along the path of raising the level of Armenian-Russian relations.”
Pashinyan also spoke in reference to the Russian experts who think that Armenia is moving towards the West. “Armenia is not going anywhere, it stands with a straight backbone of proud citizens. Armenian-Russian military relations will advance. We will also advance our relations with the European Union. We are defending our interests in our relations with Iran and the USA. The previous authorities made sure that they tied very bad phenomena to Russia with their stance. The previous authorities also put the responsibility of their corruption on outside forces, but now, since they’re on the road to jail, they’re calling Russia and saying that we’re against Russia. Don’t call them. Those calls won’t save you. No one is naive in Moscow.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
