Kremlin reacts to Pashinyan's statement to Lukashenko

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has responded to journalists' question about the words of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who asked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to apologise.

"We have already said that we continue our contacts with the Armenian side. We expect that the allied nature in the dialogue will prevail," Gazeta.Ru quotes Peskov as saying.

At the same time, he noted that he leaves Pashinyan's statements to Lukashenko without comment.

The Russian Federation will continue to work with Armenia to clarify Yerevan's position on the CSTO and expects that the countries' relations will continue in the vein of partnership and alliance, Peskov said.

"As for Armenia, we will continue working with our Armenian friends, we will clarify their position, of course, we hope that in any case we will stick to partnership and allied relations," Peskov said when asked to comment on Pashinyan's statement related to Armenia's withdrawal from the CSTO.

"Each country determines its own priorities. Our priorities are well understood, we consistently defend them, and also these priorities in the field of security, collective security are shared with us by the [CSTO] member states," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that Armenia is certainly interested in this as well.

Earlier on June 13, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that no Armenian officials would visit Belarus while its leader Alexander Lukashenko is still in power, according to Russian media. 

On June 12, Pashinyan said that Yerevan would leace a Russia-led security bloc CSTO after accusing its members, which include Belarus, of having “planned a war against his country with Azerbaijan”.

Pashinyan said he would consider changing his stance on leaving the bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, if Belarus apologised to Armenia or withdrew from the grouping.

Later on June 13, Armenia ordered its ambassador in Belarus to return to Yerevan for consultations, TASS cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying.