Armenian PM to skip summit attended by Putin in Kyrgyzstan

Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan will skip a summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend, host country Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday, amid a growing rift between Yerevan and Moscow.

Pashinyan’s snubbing the meeting of a Moscow-led regional grouping is a further blow to ties between Yerevan and Moscow, which have soured in recent weeks. 

Putin is due to travel to Bishkek on Thursday in his first trip out of Russia since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March. 

Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ani Badalyan announced earlier that an Armenian deputy foreign minister would represent Yerevan at a regular meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council in Bishkek on Thursday instead of Armenia’s top diplomat. The Armenian side denied the possibility of holding a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the October 12 event.