Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's interest in the Russian language cannot but be pleasing, Russian presidential advisor Yelena Yampolskaya said.

Yampolskaya noted that this week the Moscow House in Armenia’s capital Yerevan announced free Russian language courses that will start next week, and expressed confidence that "many citizens of Armenia will want to attend them."

"By the way, last weekend Armenia’s prime minister made a confession about the Russian language, stating that he is now attending Russian language classes. Such interest, in general, cannot but be pleasing, although the statement is unexpected, considering that at the previous SCO [i.e. Shanghai Cooperation Organization] summit, Nikol Pashinyan was the only one of the leaders of the CIS member states who did not address in Russian," Yampolskaya said. "But, apparently, he, too, cannot live without Russian."

At the September 17 Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government, Pashinyan had announced that he was attending Russian language courses.

During the SCO+ summit in Bishkek on September 1, the Armenian premier had delivered his address in Armenian for the first time at such an event. Subsequently, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov had stated that this was strange.