Russian senators regularly communicate with their Armenian counterparts; there is no question of freezing relations. Chair of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, Grigory Karasin, told this to RIA Novosti.

Answering the aforesaid news agency's question whether there are bilateral relations between the legislators of Russia and Armenia, Karasin stated: "Of course. There are very active relations, both direct and via video channels, and through embassies, regularly."

In response to the clarifying question whether there was any talk about a possible freezing of relations between the lawmakers of the two countries, the Russian senator emphasized that "we do not talk, and we do not think about it."

"We are thinking about making [our] relations meaningful and active," he added.

At the same time, Karasin stressed that the decisions of the Armenian delegation not to come to the meetings of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) are perceived "with a feeling of regret."

Armenia's position that the country remains a CSTO member is also taken into account, he added.

"But such a decision [i.e. not coming to the CSTO PA meetings] naturally causes a feeling of regret. We would like them to participate," concluded the Russian lawmaker.

Earlier, the spokesperson of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Tsovinar Khachatryan, announced that NA speaker Alen Simonyan will not attend the external session and the 16th plenary session of the CSTO PA Council to be held in Moscow on December 19.