Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, August 31 congratulated Second Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on his birthday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

According to the Kremlin's website, the Russian leader spoke to Kocharyan over the phone.

Kocharyan turns 64 on Friday.

Kocharian revealed earlier that he intends to participate in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia. Kocharyan who was charged with "overthrowing the constitutional order" back on March 1, 2008, recently announced his return to politics.

As part of an investigation into clashes between the police and protesters that followed the presidential election of 2008, Kocharyan and CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov were arrested but later released on bail.

The Investigation Service announced earlier that it had charged Armenia’s defense minister at the time of the March 1, 2008 incident, General Mikayel Harutyunyan, with illegally mobilizing the country’s Armed Forces against peaceful demonstrators, calling it a “breach of constitutional order.”

10 people were killed in the clashes.