Why Pashinyan Did Not Travel to Moscow on Putin's Birthday

Today it became known that Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will participate in the meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council in Moscow ahead of the CIS heads of state summit. Earlier, the Armenian side had announced participation in the CIS summit but did not specify which officials would travel to Moscow. It should be noted that Armenia will participate at the level of the Prime Minister in the BRICS summit to be held in Kazan from October 22 to 24. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister of Armenia will only attend one of the two summits taking place in Russia in October.

Furthermore, it is worth recalling that in May of this year, Prime Minister Pashinyan attended only one of the three events held in Russia. The Prime Minister was present at the EAEU summit on May 8 but did not attend Vladimir Putin's inauguration on May 7, nor the military parades dedicated to the anniversary of the Great Patriotic War on May 9. This tactic of Pashinyan allows us to note that the Prime Minister continues to approach political events held in Russia with reservation. In short, based on the regional and geopolitical situation, Pashinyan perhaps considers traveling to Russia twice in one month to be excessive.

Armenia is not boycotting meetings in the CIS and EAEU formats overall, while at the same time not taking steps to address the existing issues in Armenian-Russian relations.

It is noteworthy that today is the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, marking his 72nd anniversary. The Kremlin reports that Putin will celebrate his birthday in a working environment. Today, there will be a meeting of the CIS heads of state council in Moscow, where Putin is scheduled to hold meetings with CIS leaders. Therefore, the Russian president will celebrate his birthday alongside them.