AZG Armenian Daily #153, 25/08/2007
Armenia-Russia relations
PUTIN PROMISES $1,5 BILLION INVESTMENTS
On August 23, Russian and Armenian presidents Vladimir Putin and
Robert Kocharian met in Sochi (Russia). Vladimir Putin expressed his
content with development of Armenian-Russian bilateral relations:
increase in commodity turnover and allied cooperation in political
sphere, "Novosti Armenia" agency informed.
Russian President V. Putin assured of $1,5 billion Russian investments
in the Armenian economy in 2007.
In his turn, Robert Kocharian mentioned that Armenian-Russian
relations develop in all directions: there is evident increase in
investments, commodity turnover, military-technical and political
cooperation.
There is an evident development process of mutual relations, according
to the Armenian president, and the Armenian side expresses its perfect
willingness to contribute to that process.
It’s worth to mention that this kind of meetings between the Russian
and Armenian presidents at the Russian president’s residence "Bocharov
Ruchey" in Sochi have become a tradition for the two presidents. As
many politicians mention, those meetings aim to regulate bilateral
relations of the two states: to give a new impetus and quality to
them.
It’s the forth meeting of the presidents Putin and Kocharian this
year; the second in Sochi.
It’s worth to mention, that if before we could say that the political
issues were preliminary in the Armenian-Russian relations, today the
situation has changed. The economic factor is a dominant issue in
Armenia-Russia bilateral relations: over the first six months of 2007
the trade turnover between the two countries increased by 70% and at
the end of the year it will probably exceed $500 mln.
Russia has become the Number One country with its investments in the
Armenian economy ("Gasprom", "Vimpelcom", "Rusal" and other giant
organizations).
On the other hand, there are serious problems in political relations
of these two states: the mass media of the two countries write about
it from time to time.
If the Russian politicians and experts do not hide their
dissatisfaction at the Armenia-NATO developing relations, then we are
not satisfied with the military relations of our military ally with
Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Anyway, according to the Russian media one of the main issues of the
Kocharian-Putin meeting is the military-political relations between
the two states. According to the analysts, being a member of
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenia wants to
deepen the mutual military relations with Russia. It means that these
meeting will take place with the motto "Deepening of bilateral
military relations".
In the background of the new developments in the region, the
Armenian-Russian bilateral military relations have gained a new
meaning and come from the interests of our country’s national
security.
In this context, we can perceive the logic of the Armenia-NATO
deepening relations.
The meeting of the two presidents has also a symbolic meaning, as it
takes place close to the date of the 10th anniversary of the
Armenian-Russian friendship and cooperation strategic agreement (on
August 29, 1997). This agreement became the basis of the
Armenian-Russian wide-ranging military cooperation.
By Armen Manvelian