ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 20, 2004 Friday 6:26 AM Eastern Time

Putin calls for diversification of Russian-Armenian relations

By Mikhail Petrov

SOCHI

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for diversification of
Russian-Armenian relations. Opening a meeting with Armenian leader
Robert Kocharyan, Putin noted a decrease in bilateral trade turnover.

“We know the reasons behind it – a very low degree of diversification
of relations,” the Russian president said.

Putin said he was interested in exchanging opinions with Kocharyan
over this important issue.

The low degree of diversification of relations caused losses in trade
turnover. “A closure of one company for upgrades cut supplies of one
kind of product and, consequently, resulted in a dramatic decrease in
the overall turnover,” the head of the Russian state said.

For his part, Robert Kocharyan confirmed that “changes on the diamond
market led to certain roughness in relations,” meaning the
cancellation of quotas for supplies of Russian diamonds to Armenia.

As for the companies closing for upgrades – such as the Armenal
aluminum producer – “it is expected to double supplies after the
modernization, according to Kocharyan.

“In all other positions, in economy on the whole, we have been making
headway,” the Armenian president said.