Envoy: Putin did not congratulate Armenia's Pashinyan due to protocol

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin has said that acting Prime Minister Nikolay Pashinyan did not receive congratulations from Russian President Vladimir Putin following theDecember 9 snap elections to the National Assembly "due to the protocol”.

Such congratulations are not accepted in the interstate protocol, the ambassador said.

"Congratulations are usually sent when there is an appointment. We are paying close attention to this issue," Kopyrkin was quoted as saying on Tuesday, December 18.

He said "the essence of the situation was well expressed by Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova, who said that the Russian side is determined to continue the most constructive cooperation with the new authorities of the country, the parliament, the government in order to develop relations."

However, what the ambassador says contradicts the reality. While Putin did not congratulate Pashinyan for a landslide victory in elections, he did salute the head of the Republican Party of Armenia, third President Serzh Sargsyan the very next day of elections to the National Assembly in 2017.