YEREVAN. – The Lukashenko-Putin meeting to be held Tuesday in Moscow is very important to Armenia, too, in terms of the Russian natural gas price and the next CSTO Secretary General, alike, Hraparak (Square) newspaper reported.

“Despite the fact that Belarus has achieved that other CSTO [member] countries have expressed their support and even put a signature under Belarus’ candidacy, Russia has put before Belarus the union agreement—which was signed in 1999 and not brought to fruition, and it [Russia] tells it [Belarus] very straightforwardly, ‘If you want CSTO Secretariat, reduction in the gas price, 10bn loan, then be kind enough to carry out the provisions of the agreement: make your currency, your passports alike with Russia,’ to which, naturally, [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko disagrees.

“Sources close to the [Armenian] government claim that the arrangement with Russia is going toward the unchanged state of the gas price. ‘(…). The matter is in the domain of solely [Acting Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan and his first adviser, Arsen Gasparyan,” Hraparak wrote.