On 7 June, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual Russian business event for the economic sector, took place. Among the visitors was Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the sidelines of the conference.

According to Pashinyan, the Armenian-Russian relations are developing according to plan. “Our two countries have allied and strategic relations.This concerns our bilateral ties and our cooperation within the scope of the Eurasian Economic Union, the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organization,” he said. Pashinyan also mentioned the optimistic economic indicators of Armenia with a 7.1%economic growth rate recorded in the first quarter of this year. The growing number of Russian tourists in Armenia was another positive indicator according to Pashinyan. “This is nice, because I believe this is not only an economic matter, but also a cultural matter and a matter of humanitarian ties. I believe such interactions contribute to our political and economic ties,” he said.

Putin highlighted the Russian assistance to Armenia. “I want to remind that Russia is Armenia’s leading trading partner, [constituting] 26% of Armenia’s foreign trade and almost 2 billion US Dollars in direct investments and many other things which show the special, allied character of our relations,” he said.

At their meeting, various topics of Armenian-Russian cooperation were discussed. The most concerning issue at the meeting was the price of natural gas from Russia. “This is indeed a very important issue for our relations. It is important that the agreed price does not slow down the growth of the republic,” Pashinyan said in an interview with RIA Novosti. As a reminder, Russia’s Gazprom raised the wholesale price of its gas delivered to Armenia by 10% in December 2018, but the retail price for Armenian consumers has remained unchanged so far.

The Eurasian Economic Union and Russia’s weapons supply to Armenia were among other discussed topics. “We have good cooperation in the technological-military domain and, of course, we have some arrangements,” Pashinyan said in regards to the military cooperation aspects between Armenia and Russia. When asked if he intends to supply more Russian-made Iskander ballistic missiles to Armenia, Pashinyan responded that Armenia has a sufficient amount of them, but expressed his hope “to get something else from Russia.”

The topic of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was also touched upon, but was not discussed in depth. “There was no thorough discussion on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The parties simply stated that there is a common understanding of the matter,” Pashinyan’s spokesperson Vladimir Karapetyan said.

Pashinyan also met with the Director General of Yandex Company Elena Bunina and Executive Director Tigran Khudaverdyan. Yandex N.V. is a Russian multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related products and services, including search and information services, eCommerce, transportation, navigation, mobile applications, and online advertising. It is the largest technology company in Russia and the largest Russian search engine on the internet. The Yandex representatives noted that the Company is going to offer new services to the Armenian market in the field of tourism and small business development. Welcoming the initiative, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that his government appreciates the development and expansion of IT companies in his country.