“We have agreed to meet at a high level, including in the second half of June,” he told journalists.

Pashinian’s most recent talks with Putin held at the Kremlin on April 1 were marked by the Russian leader’s stern public warnings to Yerevan. In particular, he warned Pashinian’s government against disqualifying pro-Russian opposition groups from the upcoming elections and implied that Armenia would pay a heavy economic price for its continued drift to the European Union.

Pashinian insisted on April 2 that his talks with Putin were “very successful.” Still, one of his top political allies, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, said two days later that Armenia will leave Russian-led defense and trade blocs if Moscow raises the concessional price of Russian natural gas or imposes other economic sanctions on the South Caucasus country. The Russian Foreign Ministry scoffed at the warning on Wednesday.

Pashinian again sought to downplay the tensions with Moscow on Thursday, saying that Russian-Armenian relations are undergoing “constructive transformation.” Hakob Badalian, an independent political analyst, suggested that his announcement of post-election talks with Putin is meant to serve the same purpose. The Armenian premier wants to show that “Russia has not read out a political verdict to Nikol Pashinian,” Badalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

In his unusually long opening remarks at the April 1 meeting with Pashinian, Putin expressed hope that Russian-Armenian ties will be strengthened “no matter how the elections in Armenia end.”

In an extensive interview with the officials TASS news agency published the following day, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk threatened far-reaching retaliatory measures against what he described as the Armenian government’s efforts to push Russia’s state-owned railway monopoly and other major companies out of Armenia. He rejected Pashinian’s recent calls for an end to Russian management of Armenia’s rail network.

The Russian Railways (RZhD) monopoly manages Armenia’s railway network in accordance with a 30-year contract signed in 2008. Pashinian said on February 13 that the network should be run by another, non-Russian company because its current status discourages Turkey and Azerbaijan from using a much larger section of Armenian territory for transit purposes in the near future. He suggested that another Turkic country, Kazakhstan, could be interested in taking over it.

The Kazakh ministers of transport and foreign affairs arrived in Yerevan from Baku late on Wednesday for talks with Pashinian and other senior Armenian officials. According to Pashinian, the talks are focusing on Kazakhstan’s possible use of a U.S.-administered transit corridor through Armenia which he has pledged to open for Azerbaijan. He said Yerevan will not cut any railway deals “behind Russia’s back.”

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