“We reached concrete understandings in all areas of our agenda, from culture to military-technical cooperation,” he told journalists. “And I assess the visit as very successful.”

Pashinian did not elaborate on those understandings. Official readouts of the talks said nothing about them.

Putin made unusually long and blunt remarks at the start of the meeting at the Kremlin open to the media. In particular, he warned Armenian authorities against disqualifying what he called pro-Russian opposition groups or politicians from the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections. Some of them are currently under arrest “despite holding Russian passports,” Putin said in a clear reference to Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire prosecuted after condemning Pashinian’s attempts to depose Catholicos Garegin II.

Pashinian responded by saying that under the Armenian constitution, dual citizens like Karapetian cannot become prime ministers or even hold parliament seats. He suggested on Thursday that Putin was not aware of that constitutional hurdle.

“The Russian president, especially considering the scale of his country and the agenda he is dealing with, could not have gone into details even if he wanted to,” he said. “I think he was not informed about that nuance.”

Karapetian’s opposition movement has emerged in recent months as one of the ruling Civil Contract party’s main challengers. It plans to run in the June 7 polls without including the tycoon on its list of candidates. Pashinian did not say whether this or other major opposition groups could be barred from the contest.

Pashinian’s government has raised opposition fears of such bans by asking the European Union to deploy a “hybrid rapid response team” to Armenia after implicitly alleging Russian “hybrid” threats to the integrity of the electoral process. The EU sent such a mission in Moldova for the parliamentary elections held there last September. Two Moldovan opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were disqualified from the vote won by the former Soviet republic’s pro-Western leadership.

Putin on Wednesday also repeated Russian warnings about economic consequences of Armenia’s possible membership in the European Union sought by Yerevan. He noted that Armenia is heavily dependent on Russia for not only trade but also Russian natural supplied at a significant discount.

The Russian and Armenian leaders also publicly sparred over Pashinian’s decisions to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh and freeze Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

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Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said Yerevan is seeking to minimize Russian economic presence in the South Caucasus country in hopes of aligning itself with the West. He singled out its recent demands for an end to Russian management of Armenia’s rail network and controversial seizure of the national electric utility owned by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian.

“Comparing words with deeds, you come to the conclusion that our [Armenian] colleagues are very close to the point after which we will have to build our economic relations with that country in a different way,” Overchuk told the official TASS news agency in an extensive interview.

“We are interested in increasing trade with Armenia as well as with all the states of the region,” he said. “But if we are told that the presence of Russian companies in Armenia does not correspond to the interests of Armenia, then, based on the principle of reciprocity, it will be fair to ask: if Russian companies and entrepreneurs cannot be present and make money in Armenia, then why Armenian companies and entrepreneurs can be present and make money in Russia?”

The interview was published the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly issued stern warnings to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during talks held in Moscow. In particular, Putin said that the Pashinian government’s moves to eventually join the European Union are “not compatible” with Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc that gives Armenian exporters tariff-free access to Russia’s vast market.

He noted that Russia remains Armenia’s most important trading partner and supplies natural gas to the South Caucasus state at a significant discount. Pashinian responded by again saying that Armenia will eventually have to choose between the two blocs.

According to Armenian government data, Russia accounted for 35.8 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade last year, followed by China (12.3 percent) and the European Union (11.7 percent).

“Not only do we not have any problems with Russia but on the contrary, we highly value our friendly relations and do not want to harm Russia’s interests in any way,” Pashinian told reporters in Yerevan on Thursday. “But on the other hand, this situation does not allow us to use our competitive advantages, and we must think together about what solution we can find.”

The Armenian premier referred to his recent calls for the termination a 30-year management contract signed with the Russian Railways (RZhD) operator in 2008. He said on February 13 that the Armenian railway 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. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed Pashinian’s statement as “bizarre” and “not acceptable.”

Overchuk similarly told TASS that there are “no objective reasons” for RZhD to sell its concessionary management rights to another foreign operator. He brushed aside Yerevan’s declared rationale for such a deal, arguing that Turkey is already building a railway that will run from the eastern Turkish city of Kars to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave bypassing Armenia.

Pashinian said he discussed the issue with Putin “in detail” on Wednesday. He did not report any agreements reached by them. He also said he is “not planning” to unilaterally scrap the management contract with RZhD.

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Shahramian also blamed Pashinian’s for the region’s resulting capture by Baku.

“It is thanks to [the Armenian authorities’] actions that the people of Artsakh are in such a situation today and the Armenian people lost Artsakh,” he told reporters.

Azerbaijan launched the offensive in Karabakh on September 19, 2023 nearly three years after a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia halted a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Its troops greatly outnumbered and outgunned Karabakh’s small army that received no military support from Armenia.

After 24-hour hostilities, Karabakh’s leaders agreed to disband the Defense Army in return for Baku stopping the assault and allowing the region’s more than 100,000 remaining residents to flee to Armenia. They maintain that this was the only way of guaranteeing the physical safety of the Karabakh Armenians.

At least 198 soldiers and 25 civilian residents of Karabakh were killed during the fighting. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry acknowledged roughly 200 combat deaths among its military personnel involved in the operation.

“These myths that [the Karabakh Armenians] fought to the end and so on are lies,” Pashinian claimed on March 26. “There was no such thing, they fled, they ran away.”

Shahramanian dismissed the claims as “nonsense,” saying that they are aimed at dividing the Armenian society and spreading “intolerance” towards the Karabakh refugees.

Pashinian and some of his political allies have made such allegations before. In particular, the premier said in June 2024 that Karabakh forces “did not fight” because the authorities in Stepanakert as well as the Armenian opposition wanted the region’s population to flee to Armenia to topple him.

Those statements provoked a storm of condemnation from Armenian opposition leaders and public figures as well as Karabakh refugees. One of those refugees, a young woman, held Pashinian responsible for the fall of Karabakh as he campaigned for Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections on Yerevan’s subway on March 22. The premier lost his temper, brandinf the Karabakh Armenian as “fugitives” and saying they have no moral right to denounce him. He later apologized for his outburst condemned by his detractors and even some sympathizers.

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