YEREVAN. – The Russian Federation (RF), which is considered Armenia’s strategic partner, is costly on Armenia’s state budget, Zhoghovurd daily reports. 

“The visits, which were paid to Armenia in June-July by the three delegations, led by CSTO Secretary General [Nikolay] Bordyuzha, CSTO Deputy Secretary General Smirnov, and RF Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, cost about $43,500 on Armenia’s budget.

“To note, however, the visit by none of these delegations did had any importance for Armenia, but rather it was ‘protocol.’ 

“And since they were the guests of the [Armenian] NSC [i.e., National Security Council], one can assume that solely NSC Secretary Arthur Baghdasaryan made use of these visits,” Zhoghovurd writes.