The fifth meeting of the Armenian-Russian international Lazarevsky Club started Friday morning in Yerevan.

The event takes place in the format of a Moscow-Yerevan videoconference.

Armenian and Russian politicians, analysts, and journalists are participating in the meeting.

The social and political situation in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), the important matters on the Armenian-Russian agenda, the situation in the region, and many other topics will be discussed.

The topic of discussion is: "The historical past and present of Russian-Armenian relations."

The meeting got underway with the welcoming remarks by Konstantin Zatulin, a member of the Russian State Duma and Director of the Institute of CIS Countries. The Russian MP, first of all, decided to inform about the start of the consultation of the CSTO members—and which was convened on the initiative of Armenia.

According to the Russian lawmaker, this meeting of the Lazarevsky Club takes place at a most crucial time.

"Different drafts of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan are being discussed quite actively and very passionately in Armenia. A trilateral meeting shall take place in [Russia’s] Sochi [city] on October 31. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet," said Zatulin.