Armenia has lived in conflict for more than 30 years, now it is obvious, whether you like it or not, relations with Russia cannot be the same, because Armenia no longer has a conflict with Azerbaijan. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, on Thursday told this to reporters in the government building.

“The third player, the understanding of ‘political price’ has changed, the economic markets have changed, because the routes have changed, the concept of the ‘Middle Corridor’ has emerged, which is being implemented, [regional] communications are opening, Armenia is making purchases from Azerbaijan. A lot has changed in Russia too; its purchase directions have changed toward China, North Korea, European markets have closed [to it]. This cannot but change something in economic relations. We [i.e. Armenia] expect that we will sit down, calculate, figure out what is convenient for each country, without offending anyone, without entering into any conflict with anyone, to figure out and share common interests,” Simonyan said.

Referring to the talks about the removal of the Russian military base in Armenia, he said: “If they [i.e. Russia] want, they can leave, if they want, they can stay; that is their agenda, the Russian president raised that issue. I assume that they have some proposal, or maybe they think that they want to leave; that is also an acceptable option for us. The Russian side can say, ‘It costs me a lot, let’s do it together,’ or it says, ‘I want to withdraw,’ or ‘I am ready to pay, but extend the [lease] contract a little bit.”

“You are pointing to the threat [to Armenia] related to Turkey, I am saying that after August 8 [of last year], the existence of that threat is zero in my assessment, because with the presence of the base, with the presence of Russian peacekeepers, we saw what happened. What did the base do when a Russian helicopter was shot down," added the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia.