The meeting between Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan in Moscow was tense.
In a statement to Medianews.az regarding the issue, political analyst Elkhan Shahinoglu said that both individuals were actually prepared for this tension: "Alen Simonyan is Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's most loyal supporter and one of the harshest critics of Russia in his country.
Knowing this, Lavrov directly expressed Moscow's dissatisfaction with Yerevan’s policy to Simonyan. Lavrov told Simonyan that while Armenia benefits from membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, its desire to join the European Union would negatively affect relations between the two countries.
Lavrov did not explain this only with economic factors. According to the Russian diplomat, if Yerevan accepts to adopt European standards, Armenia will have to join the European Union's harsh policy against Russia.
"Armenia is an ally of Russia" — this reminder from Lavrov was followed by a contentious sentence. He said that Russia sees how complicated the situation is in the South Caucasus."
E. Shahinoglu emphasized that contrary to what Lavrov said, the complicated situation in the South Caucasus is behind, and peacebuilding between Azerbaijan and Armenia has expanded: "During Lavrov’s meeting with Simonyan, I did not encounter the Russian diplomat’s sentence expressing satisfaction with the peace process in the South Caucasus. However, currently Russia also benefits from peacebuilding, as it can export its grain to Armenia from Azerbaijan by railway."
Naila Qasimova,
Medianews.az