YEREVAN. – The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, will pay a visit to Moscow and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Zhamanak (Time) newspaper. 

“[But] the upcoming Moscow visit may be noteworthy rather from the viewpoint of domestic developments in Armenia.

“In fact, Serzh Sargsyan’s upcoming visit to Moscow will be the response, or so-called the counter visit, to [Armenian] PM Karen Karapetyan’s visit to Moscow, in January.

“Karen Karapetyan’s visit to Moscow took on a quite pronounced weight (…). All this (…) made Karen Karapetyan’s political weight heavier within the halls of power in Armenia. And this circumstance is definitely a competition issue for Serzh Sargsyan.

“Karen Karapetyan does not seem to be in his [i.e. Sargsyan’s] plans, and he is not regarded as a preferred successor [to Sargsyan]. But as Karapetyan’s visit to Moscow has demonstrated, he can be viewed as such for Moscow.

“During his visit, Serzh Sargsyan will surely attempt to considerably reduce this support and, instead, make his own [political] scale heavier,” wrote Zhamanak.