YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Kremlin hopes that the friendly allied relations between Armenia and Russia will remain constant whatever the current political situation in Armenia leads to, Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, TASS reports.

“We hope that allied, benevolent and constructive bilateral Russian - Armenian relations will remain constant in any event both for our country’s foreign policy and for the foreign policy of Yerevan”, Peskov said.

He expressed hope that the processes in Armenia will stay within the limits of law and the Constitution. “We sincerely wish our Armenian friends to approach the settlement of the current domestic political situation as soon as possible”, the Kremlin spokesman said.

On April 23, at 16:00, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned as widespread protests entered the 11th day. On the same day, as required by law, the government resigned.

First Deputy PM Karen Karapetyan was named acting PM at an emergency Cabinet meeting.

After nearly 9 hours of debates on electing a Prime Minister on May 1, with opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan being the sole candidate, the Armenian parliament failed to make the election as 56 lawmakers voted against and 45 lawmakers voted in favor.

The second round of the election for Prime Minister will take place May 8, at 12:00 in the Armenian parliament.

The ruling Republican Party (RPA) announced that they will not nominate a candidate for PM and will support the candidate nominated by the 1/3 of the total MPs.

Tsarukyan, ARF and Yelk factions announced endorsing Pashinyan’s candidacy.

Yelk faction MP Ararat Mirzoyan announced that the signatures necessary for nominating Pashinyan’s candidacy for PM are already collected. Signatures of 35 MPs were required for his nomination.

English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan