EXPERTS PRAISE RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN INTERACTION FORMAT
Vestnik Kavkaza
April 18 2012
Russia
Moscow has recently hosted a video conference with Yerevan to discuss
political forces involved in parliament polls, campaign favourites
and their effect on Russian-Armenian relations.
Alexander Markarov, Director of the Armenian branch of the Institute
for CIS States, said that none of the parties running for parliament
has plans to scrap cooperation with Russia, CIS or CSTO. The
campaign is peculiar for stress on domestic political problems,
socio-economic development, with less attention to foreign policy
and even the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A lot of attention is paid
to employment problems.
Alexander Krylov, senior scientist of the IWEIR of the RAS, President
of the Science Society of Caucasus Studiers, agreed that no dramatic
changes in relations with Russia should be expected. However, there
are escalation tendencies due to the situation in Iran, Afghanistan,
Greater Middle East, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.
There were proposals to replace Russian security guarantees with
alternate ones, including what was mentioned in 2008.
Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of the Caucasus Institute, said that
the elections would not affect Russian-Azerbaijani relations. There
are no pro-western or pro-Russian tendencies in political parties.
Iskandaryan denied possibilities of political parties formed as
projects of foreign states. All parties have contacts with foreign
partners and position themselves as Armenian, based on domestic
realities. Calling Armenia an arena of Obama's, Putin's or Sarkozy's
projects is a pointless and primitive idea, he concludes.
Vestnik Kavkaza
April 18 2012
Russia
Moscow has recently hosted a video conference with Yerevan to discuss
political forces involved in parliament polls, campaign favourites
and their effect on Russian-Armenian relations.
Alexander Markarov, Director of the Armenian branch of the Institute
for CIS States, said that none of the parties running for parliament
has plans to scrap cooperation with Russia, CIS or CSTO. The
campaign is peculiar for stress on domestic political problems,
socio-economic development, with less attention to foreign policy
and even the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A lot of attention is paid
to employment problems.
Alexander Krylov, senior scientist of the IWEIR of the RAS, President
of the Science Society of Caucasus Studiers, agreed that no dramatic
changes in relations with Russia should be expected. However, there
are escalation tendencies due to the situation in Iran, Afghanistan,
Greater Middle East, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.
There were proposals to replace Russian security guarantees with
alternate ones, including what was mentioned in 2008.
Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of the Caucasus Institute, said that
the elections would not affect Russian-Azerbaijani relations. There
are no pro-western or pro-Russian tendencies in political parties.
Iskandaryan denied possibilities of political parties formed as
projects of foreign states. All parties have contacts with foreign
partners and position themselves as Armenian, based on domestic
realities. Calling Armenia an arena of Obama's, Putin's or Sarkozy's
projects is a pointless and primitive idea, he concludes.