Simonian indicated that Pashinian will fly instead to Moscow on Wednesday to chair a summit of the leaders of five ex-Soviet states making up the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). He said Armenia cannot skip that meeting because it currently holds the rotating presidency of the Russian-led trade bloc.
Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, clarified, meanwhile, that the Kremlin has not formally invited Pashinian or other foreign leaders to the inauguration ceremony. Only the Moscow-based ambassadors of foreign states have received such invitations, he said.
The Armenian premier said late last month that he has not yet decided whether to attend it. The decision depends on “many circumstances,” he said vaguely.
Ushakov also announced that Putin and Pashinian will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the EEU summit in Moscow.
“In recent times, problematic issues have accumulated in relations between Russia and Armenia, which, as we expect, will be openly discussed by the two leaders,” the official told reporters. Putin’s meeting with Pashinian will therefore be “very meaningful,” he said.
Over the past year or so, Yerevan has boycotted high-level meetings and military exercises held by another Russian-led alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in what Pashinian described in February as an effective suspension of Armenia’s CSTO membership. The boycotts are part of a broader rift between the two longtime allies. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged in March that Pashinian’s administration is “leading things to the collapse of Russian-Armenian relations” at the behest of the West.
Simonian added to the unprecedented tensions when he criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a recent meeting of his counterparts from European Union member states. He also accused Moscow of meddling in Armenia’s internal affairs. Moscow condemned Simonian’s remarks, with a senior Russian lawmaker saying that the Armenian speaker allied to Pashinian “crossed all conceivable and inconceivable boundaries.”
“I stand by my statements,” Simonian shot back on Monday. “What I said was correct appropriate. I did not say anything new, and I am ready to repeat the same things today and always.”