Saint Valentine’s Day, although not an Armenian national holiday, takes root in Armenia. The romantic tradition to present ‘heart’ gifts is gaining popularity among young people, although majority of them do not have any idea of who Valentine was and why the holiday is celebrated.

The problems of Lezghian villages located in Azerbaijan but demanding a return into the structure of Russia have become more relevant recently, despite the fact that Russia is not yet determined to take the Lezgins back. She has rather serious arguments: the Kremlin is unwilling to quarrel with Azerbaijan because of 2 or 3 villages, which play no special role in the near-term geostrategic plan.

The National Security Strategy of Armenia describes low birth rate as one of the threats to the country’s national security.

Armenian IT field registered 15% growth in 2010. The turnover in the field totaled $150mln against $129.9mln last year. The field employs 5 thousand specialists, with 197 companies operating. At that, government financing of the IT field totaled AMD 80mln (as in 2010), what is 60% less than in 2009, when AMD 200mln was assigned.

Chess: Levon Aronian finished 3rd at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee. Hikaru Nakamura of the United States won the tournament with 9 points, followed by Viswanathan Anand of India. Gabriel Sargissian came 5th in tournament B, which was won by Luke McShane (England).