Fyodor Lukyanov: Pashinyan’s visit to Russia is acknowledgement that a lot of things connect our countries

Speaking with Alpha News, Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine and Chair of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, commented on the visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Russia.

According to Lukyanov, if Pashinyan had declined this invitation, it would have been regarded as a final separation.

“Pashinyan’s visit to St. Petersburg for the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and the informal CIS meeting comes as a realization that if he had declined this invitation, it would already have been regarded as a final separation with all that this entails. These consequences may be various, but they would clearly be unfavorable for the Armenian economy. Well, probably nothing good would have happened in other areas either,” Lukyanov said.

According to him, Yerevan is not going to end relations with Moscow.

“Despite the clearly stated course, which is undoubtedly distancing, Yerevan, apparently, is not going to break off relations. It does not want to. Therefore this visit should show that, no matter what, Armenia and Russia remain in close relations. But we will see how all this ends—whether there will be results, whether they will be good—but the arrival itself is an acknowledgement that there is still too much that connects our countries,” Lukyanov concluded.