Armenian Speaker announces Pashinyan's upcoming meeting with Putin in Moscow Rules out withdrawal of Russian base

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will visit Russia in the coming days and plans to meet with President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan told a briefing.

“I don’t think the head of state would travel to Moscow if such a meeting were not planned. A visit by the head of state, whether official or working, cannot take place without such a meeting,” Simonyan said, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

On the question of Russia’s military presence in Armenia, Simonyan assured that Armenia is not considering the possibility of withdrawing the Russian military base from its territory. “At the moment, we are not discussing this issue; there have been no such talks.”

He also addressed the state of Armenia’s parliamentary opposition, saying, “Some individuals are looking for opportunities to join other political forces and get into the next parliament.” He described the current parliamentary opposition as “a political corpse, a political bankrupt, and has no political agenda.”

Regarding the extra-parliamentary opposition, Simonyan noted that it exists and expressed hope that after the parliamentary elections, established opposition leaders will enter parliament and “finally we will have a parliamentary opposition.”

By Khagan Isayev