Putin to meet Armenian, Azerbaijani presidents at CIS summit
By Viktoria Sokolova

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 15, 2004 Wednesday 12:26 AM Eastern Time

MOSCOW, September 15 — Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet
the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Ilkham
Aliyev, at the CIS summit opening in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko told Itar-Tass that the
three-party format of such meeting had proved useful.

The Kremlin proceeds from the assumption that the presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan “should come to agreement between each other”,
and Russia “can make its contribution to the development and deepening
of the dialogue”.

“Moscow has been the initiator of the three-party meeting of the
presidents,” a source in the presidential administration told
Itar-Tass.

The Kremlin does not rule out that Kocharyan and Aliyev will hold a
face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the summit in Astana.