Dmitry Anatolyevich, Is Coffee a Door or Do You Drink Sweet?

'Irates' newspaper writes: 'We Armenians welcome our important guests under our own roof, emphasizing their personality and significance.' Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement was directed at Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who visited Armenia to attend the meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of EAEU member countries.

It is not difficult to guess why the Armenian authorities chose to invite just the Russian Prime Minister among the many guests visiting Armenia and to welcome him at the government summer residence. The authorities are making every effort to prove to their senior brother that they are sincere in communication and loyal in their relations. The broader public is not particularly concerned about the important issues discussed at the EAEU meeting. Everyone's attention is focused on the innocent story of drinking coffee.

Medvedev's semi-joking question to Pashinyan, 'Перейти куда?' (‘Where to go?’), and the laughter that followed stirred public sentiment to the extent that PM Pashinyan felt it necessary to address the matter. The country's number one figure took time from his busy schedule to explain that the laughter among those present was due to the desire to go for a coffee break.

For me, the amusing part was not the Pashinyan-Medvedev dialogue but the 'crucial' nature of Pashinyan's response and the bureaucratic obsession of his teammates in 'maintaining the boss's dignity.'

Both the members of the parliamentary majority and representatives of the executive slammed the Russian Prime Minister one after another, highlighting Prime Minister Pashinyan's generous silence and his ability to be 'courageous.' In the harmless conversation about drinking coffee, for example, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan saw tremendous 'bravery,' while one MP even consulted more than ten linguists to ensure that the Prime Minister had not made a linguistic error.

Whether calling him Dima, Dimochka, or using characterizations such as 'living off Armenian money,' these remarks were directed at a person who had been honored with special hospitality by their political father just the day before, breaking political ethics and contrasting with the presence of other guests. The message from the failed dialogue about drinking coffee was clear: dissatisfaction with Armenian-Russian relations is brewing in Moscow.'

For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.