RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN IS AGAINST SERZH SARKISIAN AS KOCHARIAN’S SUCCESSOR?

Today, Azerbaijan
Aug. 30, 2006

Armenian President’s press secretary Viktor Soghomonian gave a press
briefing in Yerevan.

Kocharian’s press secretary was also asked to comment on a recent
report published in the "Iravunk" weekly, which, citing its sources,
suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin had openly spoken
against Armenia’s powerful defense minister Serzh Sarkisian as
Kocharian’s successor.

"I haven’t discussed publications of that type with the president
for a long time, because very often they are so absurd that even do
not deserve discussing," Soghomonian said.

He said the relations between Kocharian and Sarkisian were normal and
that there was no conflict between Armenia’s ruling Republican Party
and Prosperous Armenia, a newly established pro-government party led
by tycoon Gagik Tsarukian, RFE/RL Armenian service informs.

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