Presidents of Armenia and Russia to discuss key issues of cooperation in Moscow

ArmInfo. President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan will meet on August 10 in Moscow to discuss issues of cooperation in the 
political, trade and economic and humanitarian fields, as well as a number of pressing international and regional problems, according to the Kremlin press-office. 

The last time the two presidents met during a trilateral summit in Saint Petersburg in June with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The meeting was held over the flare up in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. After the meeting, the presidents made joint statements saying the sides have achieved mutual understanding on some issues the settlement of which will help creating conditions for making progress in the Karabakh peace process. 

After the meeting, in July and August the Defense Ministries of NKR and Azerbaijan have repeatedly reported ceasefire violations on the Line of Contact. In July, Aliyev said "Karabakh will never get independence." At his August 8 meeting with the Russian and Iranian leaders, Aliyev reiterated that the status quo in Karabakh is 
inadmissible. 

Prior to it, Putin disclaimed the statements that Russia is trying to monopolize the Karabakh peace process and oust the other mediators. He said Russia will not be forcing any settlement recipes upon Azerbaijan or Armenia. During his meeting with Aliyev in Baku, Putin said Moscow will try its best for Armenia and Azerbaijan to find a 
mutually acceptable solution through concessions.  Russia has a military base in the territory of Armenia, a single Air Defense system and the Russian frontier guards are guarding Armenia's borders with Turkey and Iran together with the Armenian frontier guards etc. 

Russia is the leading economic partner of Armenia accounting for about 24% of total foreign trade balance of Armenia. In 2015, the foreign trade turnover of Russia and Armenia totaled 1,244.8 million dollars, with Russia's export totaling 1,048.2 million dollars and imports - 196.6 million dollars.

Since 1991, Russia has made 4 billion dollars capital investments in the economy of Armenia. Among the largest investments of Russia is the construction of gas and energy facilities with participation of Gazprom OJSC, acquisition of all the assets of ArmenTel communications operator by VympelCom OJSC, acquisition of 
ArmsavingsBank by VTB Bank OJSC, as well as modernization of Rusal-Armenal plant by Russian Aluminum OJSC, the power engineering capacities of Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade and Hrazdan HPP by Inter RAO UES OJSC. The enterprises and units with the Russian capital (more than 1,300) account for 27.6% of total enterprises with foreign capital in Armenia.