RUSSIAN EXPERT ALAN KASAYEV: "MOSCOW SHOULD HELP ARMENIA RESTORE RELATIONS WITH ITS NEIGHBOR COUNTRIES"

Today.Az
/politics/45196.html
May 23 2008
Azerbaijan

Moscow should help Armenia restore normal relations with neighbor
countries, said Alan Kasayev, chief of the head board of the CIS
and Baltic states of the Russian agency of international information
RIA-Novosti.

"Moscow’s task for Armenia is to encourage this process without
putting pressure on the loyal ally in Yerevan or reliable partners in
Baku and Ankara", said Kasayev on May 23 in Yerevan during a report
"The Caucasus conflicts and Kosovo precedent" at the Caucasus-2007
conference.

At the same time, Kasayev noted that prospects of Armenia’s development
do not depent either on Russia, "as anti-Armenian policy of Moscow
is impossible to image even theoretically" or the internal reserves
of the country and the people.

According to Kasayev, Russia has defined new subgroups of the
post-Soviet countries and developed a new methodology, which should
lay foundation of the new Russian external policy in the near
abroad. "Armenia and Georgia add to the list of the third subgroup
of countries and they were given time to define", said Kasayev.

As for Georgia, the expert noted that its anti-Russian rhetorics and
actions of the leadership were no positive for Tbilisi, but Russia
also did not gain anything by "undertaking response, unfortunately,
not adequate or symmetric actions".

"The sides have realized this zero balance and seem to overcome it",
said Kasayev.