Pashinian ’ s position on Russia ’ s role in the negotiation process has also been significantly inconsistent and became one of the factors that could have led to the disruption of the negotiation process . In 2016 , after the April War , being a representative of the opposition forces , Pashinian declared that Russia with its actions de facto provoked the war , highlighting Russia ’ s negative role in the conflict resolution process , stating that Russia uses the conflict in order to promote its own interests and benefit from the confrontation ( Tsargrad 2020 ). Being an opposition leader , Pashinian was criticising Russia ’ s actions in the region which could have caused tensions between the Russian government and Pashinian as a politician . Even after Pashinian becoming the Prime Minister , the tension between the Russian and Pashinian ’ s governments was increasing , and the Russian government perceiving Armeni as its sphere of influence , criticised the Pashinian for being non-constructive ( RIA News 2018 ). Azerbaijani side , closely following the existing dynamic , could not but have noticed that with Pashianian becoming the Prime Minister of Armenia , the relations between Russia and Armenia became more complex . For Azerbaijan it created a possibility to decrease the Russian support to Armenia , continue building close relations with the Russian government and prevent Russia from fully supporting Armenia in the conflict .
Even though , as a Prime Minister of the country , Pashinian has significantly reviewed his position on Russia realising that building at least stable and respectful relations with Russia is one of the Armenian foreign policy priorities , the already existing tensions were visible for the adversary that now had more possibilities to resolve the conflict with preferred military means . As a Prime Minister , Pashinian had to take into consideration the already existing geopolitical , military and economic realities and pay attention to the development of the Russian-Armenian relations which were significant for the country ’ s economy and security . Pashinian called Russia a “ strategic partner ”, referring to it as “ friendly Russia '' taking into consideration that Russia ’ s role in keeping the Karabakh conflict resolution in a peaceful flow was considerable ( Hetq 2019 ). In 2018 Pashinian stated that : We all understand that Russia , as a superpower , has an opportunity to prevent a war ( Armenpress 2018 ). By making statements about Russia being a friend and partner of Armenia , Pashinian tried to ensure the security of the country and nonaggression of Azerbaijan and make sure that Russia will not shift to supporting Azerbaijan in the negotiation process , which will be critical to Armenia and Artsakh . During the 44-Day War , Pashinian has numerously stated that “ in case of necessity Russia will fulfill its treaty obligations ”.
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