15:18 | September 06, 2026 Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that during the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in Armenian on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, he thought about whether the Russian translation of his speech would be provided, TASS reports.

"I thought about where the ‘earphone’ that should be put on so I can hear the Russian translation, and I also thought about whether there would be a Russian translation, whether there is an Armenian-to-Russian translator? The translation was carried out," Peskov said. According to him, Pashinyan's Armenian speech was a signal of an attempt to emphasize Armenia's sovereignty.

"Why it couldn't have been announced in Russian, to be honest, we [i.e. Russia] didn't understand. But this is the choice of the head of state, and we respect it," the Kremlin spokesperson noted. Pashinyan spoke in Armenian for the first time at the SCO+ meeting in Bishkek, while previously he had used Russian at such international events.

He was the only CIS leader to speak in a language other than Russian at the summit. Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov also called Pashinyan’s decision to speak in Armenian “strange,” while noting that Armenian is the state language of Armenia.