Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks on Wednesday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Kremlin announced, after Yerevan distanced itself for months from Moscow.
The failure of Russian peacekeepers to intervene during the lightning attack launched by Azerbaijan last year, during which it regained Nagorno-Karabakh, angered Brevan, which has a traditional alliance with Moscow.
“With regard to our bilateral relations, they are developing very successfully,” Putin told Pashinyan, who is visiting Moscow to participate in the Eurasian Economic Union summit, according to a video clip published by the Kremlin.
The talks took place 5 months after Armenia joined the International Criminal Court, which requires it to arrest Putin if he sets foot on Armenian territory.
Putin added: “We always, first and foremost, pay attention to economic cooperation,” without mentioning the tension that has plagued relations between the two countries.
For months, Pashinyan made sharp critical comments regarding relations between Armenia and Russia, as he visited Moscow for the first time after this estrangement.
Moscow accused the small mountainous country of trying to break the decades-long partnership between them.
Armenia boycotted a summit of a Moscow-led security coalition at the end of 2023 due to what Pashinyan described at the time as the bloc’s failure to fulfill its security obligations.
