ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS OPENING OF RUSSIAN BORDER SHOWS “TENSION EASED”

Mediamax news agency
22 Oct 04

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today said that Russia’s decision
to open the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Georgian-Russian border on
the eve of his official visit to Tbilisi was “a coincidence, but a
pleasant coincidence”.

A Mediamax special correspondent reports from Tbilisi that Robert
Kocharyan today said that the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint was closed due
to the Beslan events and the decision to open it shows that “the
tension has eased”.

The Armenian president said that he did not tend to dramatize the
situation, but he wanted the Georgian-Russian border not to close
again.

“When the border is closed, everyone loses – not only Georgia and
Armenia, but Russia as well,” Robert Kocharyan concluded.