Pashinyan claims he reached an understanding with Putin on the fate of the Armenian railways concession

During a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a mutual understanding was recorded that the current situation cannot continue for long.

This was stated at a briefing after a government session by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, commenting on the results of his meeting with the president of the Russian Federation on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek.

"We came to an agreement that the issue needs to be resolved one way or another," Pashinyan said.

In response to a request to comment on the statements of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk (that claims about the toxicity of Russian Railways for Armenia have no relation to reality), Pashinyan replied: "I think Mr. Overchuk's words do not reflect the atmosphere that was present during the discussion of this issue."

According to the prime minister, both in Armenia and in Russia there is an understanding that the issue can only be resolved by selling the concession rights to a third party acceptable to both Armenia and Russia.

"Frankly speaking, I think this is the best solution — other solutions simply do not seem realistic to me," he said.

Let us recall that earlier Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia must use the transit potential of both the future railway through the Meghri region (the TRIPP project with U.S. participation) and the railway from Yeraskh to Gyumri (operated by the South Caucasus Railway company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways). But the government of Armenia, he said, receives signals from international business that the Yeraskh–Gyumri route is problematic for them, since they do not want to deal with a Russian company that they "consider toxic." According to the Armenian prime minister, so that the republic does not miss the opportunities of international transit (after the opening of the borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan), the concession for Armenia's railways would be better transferred to a mutually acceptable (for Armenia and Russia) third party.

In turn, Russian Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin reported that Moscow is not conducting negotiations on transferring the concession to Kazakhstan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the request of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to sell Armenia the railway concession causes surprise and "emotions in the chest." The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested that the Armenian leadership is probably being subjected to blackmail by the West, which demands the elimination of the "Russian factor" from the country's transport sphere.

Source: Sputnik Armenia