Pashinyan says Putin did not congratulate him on election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commented on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated him during their recent telephone conversation on his re-election to office.

"He didn't want to, so he didn't congratulate me," Pashinyan said, according to Aysor.am .

The prime minister then added: "The Russian president did not congratulate me, but that raises the question: if not, then who was he talking to?"

Pashinyan also insisted that Putin had not given him any deadline.

Asked whether Putin had set a deadline for Armenia to hold a referendum on joining the European Union or remaining in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Pashinyan said that "the language of ultimatums and deadlines is unacceptable."

"We make our own decisions regarding our sovereign rights. In that regard, I have said that we will decide ourselves whether to hold a referendum and when—or not to hold one at all," he said.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin recently held a telephone conversation. Pashinyan stressed that restrictions on exports of Armenian-origin goods to the Russian market contradict the legal framework governing Armenia-Russia relations and the regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union, and asked that measures be taken to resolve the issue.

According to the Kremlin's statement, the telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place at the initiative of the Armenian side.