“Zhamanak” says Russian President Vladimir Putin did not invite Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to pay an official visit to Russia when they met in Moscow on Wednesday. Putin extended such an invitation to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at their meeting held earlier in the day. “The lack of specifics in these circumstances seems to suggest that Putin is still exploring and that for him his relationship with Nikol Pashinian has not yet reached a point that would warrant an official visit,” speculates the paper.
“Hraparak” comments on the release from prison of Zhirayr Sefilian, the leader of the Founding Parliament movement who was convicted earlier this year of plotting an armed revolt against Serzh Sarkisian’s government. The paper says this was clearly made possible by the recent democratic revolution in Armenia. It says judges dealing with the Sefilian case simply sought to please the new government, rather than administer justice.
“Zhoghovurd” reports that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has voiced its opposition to Pashinian’s decision to complete an unpopular pension reform that was launched by Sarkisian’s government in 2014. Artsvik Minasian, a government minister affiliated with Dashnaktsutyun, was told off by Pashinian after voicing serious misgivings about the reform earlier this week. Dashnaktsutyun leaders are now defending Minasian, saying that their party will fight to ensure that the new pension system is not mandatory for Armenians born after 1973. “Dashnaktsutyun will certainly try to pretend to be a principled political force which continues to oppose the mandatory pension system while being part of the government,” comments the paper.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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