What did Putin ask Pashinyan?
An informal summit of CIS leaders was held in St. Petersburg. At the end of each year, the informal meeting traditionally held in the northern capital of Russia usually has the character of summing up the state of development of political and economic relations between the Commonwealth countries during the year. What was the memory of this summit, which took place against the background of tense Moscow-Iravan relations, and expected and hoped-for peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia?
We present the report prepared by APA's special correspondent in Russia, Farid Akbarov.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, represented by the majority of the member countries of the former union, celebrated its 32nd anniversary this year. At the suggestion of Russia, the leaders of the CIS member states gathered in St. Petersburg to evaluate the activities of the CIS in 2023, which has lost Georgia and Ukraine and is losing Moldova and continues to operate as an international organization with a more economic and humanitarian focus.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, represented by the majority of the member countries of the former union, celebrated its 32nd anniversary this year. At the suggestion of Russia, the leaders of the CIS member states gathered in St. Petersburg to evaluate the activities of the CIS in 2023, which has lost Georgia and Ukraine and is losing Moldova and continues to operate as an international organization with a more economic and humanitarian focus.
In the part of the summit open to the press, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a speech and spoke about the work done in 2023 among the member countries within the framework of the CIS, and evaluated the activities of the Union. Of course, the interest of the media was focused on the fact that Moscow-Irevan and Baku-Irevan relations would be discussed at the event, not the informal summit held every year. The media of our northern neighbor presented as separate news the contacts between the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, as well as Vladimir Putin and Pashinyan from the summit.
The photos of President Ilham Aliyev and Pashinyan, taken during the meeting and leaving the banquet in honor of the heads of state, became the agenda of the CIS summit under the title "Peace photo".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made a statement to the press during the summit and said that Baku and Yerevan are ready to conclude the peace agreement. The statement made by Putin's spokesman after the summit was also interesting...
"The informal summit of the CIS was a good opportunity to support the dialogue between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, who should finish the work on the peace agreement. This is very important. Both sides have recently declared their intention to finalize work on a peace treaty. Russia is ready to help them and welcome it. We do not force our mediation on anyone. It is very important for us that our two partners and allies conclude a peace agreement in a short period. "Peace between Baku and Yerevan will bring a predictable atmosphere to the Caucasus," the press secretary of the Kremlin said.
In Russia, they believe that the informal summit of the CIS leaders was successful in terms of the prospects for the normalization of relations between Baku-Iravan and Moscow-Iravan, and the results of the contacts held within the framework of the summit will soon show themselves in practice.
According to the director of the Russian Institute of Political Studies, political scientist Sergey Markov, Pashinyan wanted to show the West that Armenia is not yet fully Western by coming to Petersburg. "The Armenian press writes that Putin wants Pashinyan to clarify the tension of relations. I think that Putin is well aware of the reasons for the deterioration of relations. These reasons are related to Armenia demanding Russia to take its side in the conflict with Azerbaijan and Pashinyan moving from Russia to the West, to France and the United States, enemies of Moscow. Which Pashinyan has wanted for a long time. In my opinion, in fact, at this summit, Putin wanted to find out how far Pashinyan is ready to go from Russia. Putin wants to know how harshly Russia can respond to Armenia if it takes this step. However, it is not yet clear what Pashinyan wants to do, or whether he wants to blackmail Russia in this way. On the other hand, by coming to Petersburg, Pashinyan wants to show the West that Armenia does not belong to the West yet. For this to happen, the West should work hard and support Armenia more," the Russian expert stressed.
Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute of Modern State Development operating in St. Petersburg, polytechnic, believes that Armenia's Western-oriented political course will not change after the CIS summit.
"Pashinyan believes that Armenia's participation in the Eurasian integration process is not a political or geopolitical, but an economic factor. This is of course his opinion. As for Pashinyan's separate contacts with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia within the framework of the summit, this is a positive thing. It is understood that the recent behavior of Armenia worried many participants of the integration process in the post-Soviet space. Therefore, the personal contacts of the leaders were very important in this regard. However, it is not worth waiting for some sensational statement about these contacts," Solonnikov said.
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