Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 18.02.22:

According to US State Department spokesman Ned Price, Blinken had offered to meet with Lavrov, and Russia had stated the end of next week as the date for this talk.

The meeting will take place in Europe—and on the condition that there will be no future invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Price said.

If the Russians invade Ukraine in the coming days, it will become clear that they have never taken diplomacy seriously, he added.

Antony Blinken on Thursday laid out in stark detail the United Nations Security Council actions the U.S. believes Russia could take to manufacture a crisis and justify an invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack,” Blinken said, adding the pretext could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or an “outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian government.”

Turkey, as of 2021, is the largest foreign investor in Ukraine, with $4.5 billion in annual investment—and trade between the two countries totaling over $5 billion.

During their recent meeting in Kyiv, Erdogan and Zelenskyy signed a free-trade deal that they say will boost trade to $10 billion and vastly expanded defense cooperation.

Despite this clearly agitating Russian President Vladimir Putin—he called Erdogan shortly after the drones were deployed—Ankara has not signaled it will stop supplying drones to Kyiv.

“However, Erdogan is unlikely to go as far as he did in supporting Azerbaijan directly in its recent war with Armenia,” the authors noted.

The Erdogan-Putin relationship is one solidified not by institutions but by a “strong handshake” between two charismatic leaders who tend to shape the state in their image, according to Asli Aydintasbas, a journalist and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The visit is expected to become a new milestone in the development of Azerbaijani-Russian relations, as well as in the strengthening of regional security.

Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin last communicated by phone on January 18. They exchanged views on Ukraine—and in the context of the Azerbaijani leader’s January 14 visit to Kyiv where he had held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

During this football match, the Armenians of Marseille carried out a protest action. They waved the national flags of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Also, they held banners that read, "Qarabag/Artsakh is Armenia," "Azerbaijan is a criminal country," and "Shushi, not Shusha."

The bill was adopted by 30 votes in favor, and all the MPs in attendance voted in its favor.

The adopted law defines the relations related to the legal status of the Azerbaijani-occupied Artsakh territories and the special legal regime applying to them, the peculiarities of the activities of state and local governments and organizations, human and civil rights and freedoms, as well as the protection and defense of rights and interests of legal entities.

Earlier, this proposed law was examined by the expert service of the parliament staff, and, in connection with the adoption of this bill, it was proposed to make amendments in the Artsakh Electoral and Civil Codes.

  • World leaders converge this weekend on Germany for the annual conference which will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis as major Western powers warn the Kremlin looks close to launching an invasion.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will also attend the forum.

The FM is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with his colleagues.

He noted that one of the spiritual leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who enjoys universal respect, should be nominated “if we want to have an impartial president who will be guided only by the national interest.”

Opposition ‘Armenia’ party MP and Constitutional expert Aram Vardevanyan noted that the constitution doesn’t prohibit nomination of the spiritual leader as a presidential candidate.

The MP reminded that to become president, the Constitution requires an Armenian citizen above 40s, who will be guided by national interests.

Armenian president Armen Sarkissian resigned late January, saying he believes the country's constitution does not give him sufficient powers to influence events.

National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has temporarily assumed the powers of the President of Armenia.

Gartner expects the virtual economy to be supported by digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The metaverse will affect all businesses with which consumers interact today. By 2026, 30% of the world's organizations will have products and services available in the metaverse.

Gartner defines the metaverse as a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of virtual augmented physical and digital reality.

He expressed fears that everyone will soon forget about this pandemic and switch to other crises.

Gates believes that money should be invested in three main areas: monitoring possible outbreaks of infections, international research regarding the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and the development of health care systems.

HBO and HBO Max content director Casey Bloys told the publication that talks are underway with the series' team to determine when to release the project. The manager acknowledged that the company was in no hurry to announce the premiere date due to fears that the pandemic could affect the progress of the show and the release would have to be postponed.

  • The Beijing Olympics Games are in full swing!

And the most discussed topic these days was the Russian figure skaters team performance.

Kamila Valieva fell multiple times in Thursday's free skate program. The 15-year-old — who is at the center of a doping scandal — finished fourth as the ROC's Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova topped the podium.

Runner-up Alexandra Trusova was also in despair after her history-making five quadruple jumps proved not enough to beat teammate Anna Shcherbakova to the gold medal. “I hate this sport,” she shouted at the side of the rink. “I won’t go onto the ice again.”

Meanwhile, Kamila Valieva, 15, tumbled all the way to fourth place as the weight of a doping scandal seemed to crush her spirit.

However, there are thoughts that Valieva fell multiple times because the International Olympics Committee predetermined that the traditional celebration would be canceled if Valieva finished in the top three over concerns of later revoking her medal.

The Russian teen skater competed despite testing positive for a banned substance back in December last year. The test result just came to light last week, after she helped the Russians capture gold in the team competition.

And here are other results of the day: Norway won its 15th gold medal of Beijing 2022, a record for a single nation at a Winter Games, when Johannes Thingnes Bø won the men's 15km mass start biathlon.

China's Olympic sensation Eileen Gu clinched gold in the halfpipe to become the first freeskier to win three medals in a single Games.