Pashinyan's Thanks to Putin Have Quadrupled: 'Legal'
At one point, the press meticulously calculated how many times Armenia’s third president, Serzh Sargsyan, expressed gratitude during meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Based on the number of these expressions of thanks, analyses were made about the equality of the dialogue and the level of Armenian-Russian relations. However, the same press astonishingly overlooks the dynamics of gratitude from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Of course, 'Legal' will correct this.
Thus, during his first visit to Moscow in 2018 as a newly appointed Prime Minister, Pashinyan thanked the Russian President only for the invitation. Today, however, his expressions of gratitude have quadrupled: during his latest visit to Moscow, Pashinyan thanked Putin four times. The Russian President, naturally, received no thanks in return.
Incidentally, before the snap parliamentary elections, during his visit to Moscow in April, Pashinyan had limited himself to only two expressions of gratitude in response to one from Putin. Just a few months later, Pashinyan's thanks have multiplied.
It’s also worth noting that there have already been three meetings between Putin and Pashinyan in Moscow this year. The first was a trilateral meeting with Aliyev on January 11. Even then, Pashinyan was quite generous in terms of gratitude, thanking the Russian President four times again.