Leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which consists of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are due to gather in the Armenian capital on November 23.
Asked by media whether Putin plans to hold a separate meeting with the Armenian leader in Yerevan, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said: “Yes, it [the meeting] is planned, of course.”
Earlier, Peskov confirmed that Putin will travel to Armenia to attend the CSTO summit.
Pashinian and Putin reportedly discussed the upcoming CSTO summit in a phone call on November 9.
The Armenian readout of the phone call said that the two leaders also discussed the agenda of Putin’s visit to Armenia on November 22.
A Kremlin report then did not mention the Russian leader’s upcoming visit to Armenia.
This will be the first visit by Putin to Armenia after a 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh that was stopped due to a Moscow-brokered ceasefire under which Russia deployed around 2,000 peacekeepers in the region.
On October 31, in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin hosted talks between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev focused on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Sochi talks were followed by more Armenian-Azerbaijani diplomatic engagement facilitated by the European Union and the United States.
In an interview with Armenia’s Public Television on November 16 the Armenian prime minister berated the CSTO for refusing to defend its member Armenia in its border standoff with Azerbaijan, which is not a member of the Moscow-led bloc.
The rare open criticism from Yerevan came in the wake of controversial remarks made by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko who publicly rejected Armenia’s demands for a clear stance of the CSTO on what Yerevan calls Azerbaijan’s invasion and occupation of parts of sovereign Armenian territory since May 2021, which Baku denies.
Armenia is expected to raise the issue of CSTO assistance to its ally when the leaders of the organization gather in Yerevan this week.