Russia is interested in developing relations with Moscow's ally Armenia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated during a meeting with the visiting speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Alen Simonyan.

"Based on the fact that in recent years, our contacts at the highest—political and parliamentary—levels have developed steadily and quite intensively; we [i.e. Russia] are interested in this. Armenia is our ally and strategic partner. We see how complicated the situation is in the South Caucasus," Lavrov said.

"Our deputy prime ministers are regularly in touch within the framework of decisions that were made on the basis of agreements between the leaders within the framework of the trilateral [i.e. Armenian, Russian, and Azerbaijani] working group," added the Russian foreign minister.