By Anush Mkrtchian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Russia and Armenia will remain close allies despite unprecedented friction between them, the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, said on Monday, April 10.
“There can be differences of opinion and evaluation between us, that’s normal,” Kopyrkin told reporters. “The volume of our relations is such that there may arise practical issues on which the parties have differing positions. But on the whole, I am confident that what unites us remains and will be reinforced. Our relations were, are and will be allies.”
Those relations have deteriorated in the last several months mainly because of what Yerevan sees as Moscow’s lack of support for its main South Caucasus ally in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
The rift between the two nations deepened further late last month after Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for parliamentary ratification of the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty. The ruling followed an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Moscow warned on March 27 that recognition of The Hague tribunal’s jurisdiction would have “extremely negative” consequences for Russian-Armenian relations. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has since given no indications that it will press ahead with sending the treaty to the Armenian parliament for ratification.
