Prime minister of Armenia holds discussions with Putin in Moscow

The Prime minister of Armenia went to Moscow and met with the Russian President Putin on Wednesday. Armenia and Russia are having a lot of problems with each other.

Putin and Nikol Pashinyan met to talk after attending a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is an economic alliance dominated by Moscow. The talks happened the day after Putin started his fifth term as President in a fancy ceremony at the Kremlin.

In short, Putin briefly commented at the beginning of the talks that trade between the two countries was increasing, but he also mentioned some concerns about security in the region.

Pashinyan, who last went to Moscow in December, said that “some problems have built up since then. ”

Armenia and Russia are not as close as they used to be because of a conflict in September. Azerbaijan wanted to take back control of the Karabakh area from Armenia, and this ended a long period of rule by Armenian separatists.

Armenian leaders say that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh did not stop Azerbaijan’s attack. Moscow has a military base in Armenia. It says its troops did not have permission to get involved and has denied the accusations.

The Kremlin is upset because Pashinyan is trying to make friends with the West and move away from Moscow’s control over his country’s security and economy.

While Pashinyan was in Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said the country will stop giving money to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is run by Russia. Armenia stopped being part of the group because Pashinyan wanted to make stronger connections with the European Union and NATO.

Russia was upset that Armenia decided to join the International Criminal Court because they had indicted Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Moscow is worried about the conflict between Ukraine and Yerevan, but they are trying to not make a big deal out of it.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that there are some problems in our relationship with another country, but we are still willing to talk and work things out.