Russia seeks to maintain friendly ties with Armenia

Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, has said that Moscow seeks to maintain friendly relations with Armenia, TASS reported.

The Russian state news agency quoted Naryshkin as saying that Russia hopes that “friendly relations and the development of cooperation” will be maintained with Armenia.

“For us, for Russia, it is important that the two countries, in any case, maintain friendly relations so that cooperation and interaction in economic, humanitarian, and military-technical areas can develop. We hope that this will indeed be the case,” Naryshkin said, speaking about ties with Armenia.

Ahead of the parliamentary elections held on June 7, Russia imposed restrictions and bans on the import of numerous Armenian goods, which continue to this day.

The ruling “Civil Contract” party secured a landslide victory and will hold a majority in the new parliament. Many world leaders have congratulated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the victory. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet done so. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier said that Russia is awaiting the final confirmation of the election results. The Central Electoral Commission finalized the results on June 14: the “Civil Contract” party received 64 seats in parliament, the “Strong Armenia” alliance 29 seats, and the “Armenia” alliance 12 seats.