page_title: Nikol Pashinyan
section_title: Relations with Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Nikol Pashinyan / Views and political positions / Foreign policy / Relations with Russia
caption_attribution_description: Русский: В перерыве матча Президент России Владимир Путин кратко пообщался с иностранными гостями, прибывшими на Чемпионат мира по футболу 2018 года
context_page_description: Nikol Pashinyan is an Armenian politician serving as Prime Minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. He is a former journalist and editor.
  A prominent journalist, Pashinyan first founded his own newspaper in 1998 which was shut down a year later. He was sentenced for one year for defamation against then Minister of National Security Serzh Sargsyan. He edited Haykakan Zhamanak from 1999 to 2012. Sympathetic to Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he was highly critical of second president Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, and their allied oligarchs. Pashinyan led a minor opposition party in the 2007 parliamentary election, garnering 1.3% of the vote.
  He was an outspoken supporter of Ter-Petrosyan, when the latter made a political comeback prior to the 2008 presidential election. Ter-Petrosyan was defeated by Serzh Sargsyan in an election marred with widespread vote fraud and violence. Noted for his fiery speeches, Pashinyan had a significant role in the post-election protests which were violently put down by government forces on 1 March 2008 resulting in the deaths of 10 people.
context_section_description: In 2013 he voted against Armenia's membership to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, claiming it threatened Armenia's national security and sovereignty. Pashinyan argued that Armenia's membership to the union could hurt Armenia's relations with its neighbors, including Iran. RFE/RL noted in 2016 that Pashinyan's Civil Contract party "advocates a more neutral Armenian foreign policy" than Bright Armenia (led by MP Edmon Marukyan), and Republic (led by former PM Aram Sargsyan)—the two other members of the Way Out alliance—who have a pro-Western orientation. In August 2017 RFE/RL noted that Pashinyan "repeatedly objected last year to some pro-Western politicians’ calls for Yerevan to leave Russian-dominated trade bloc." Nonetheless, the Way Out Alliance parliamentary faction approved a draft statement by the parliament demanding the government to start a process of invalidating Armenia's accession treaty with the EEU. 
  In 2016 he criticized and voted against the Armenian-Russian agreement on creation of the Unified Regional Air Defence System in the Caucasus by arguing that Armenia should "develop a system of air defence of sovereign Armenia. Why should we transfer our own air defence system under the command of Russia?" He stated that Russia "cannot be considered a real guarantor of Armenia´s security. This kind of agreement with Russia creates only the illusion of a strengthening of security." In April 2018 he stated that he will not pull out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and that he has "no problems with the Russian bases" in Armenia by citing Armenia's bad relations with Turkey. The Russian base in Gyumri, he said, guards the Turkish-Armenian border and Armenia needs it. In December 2018 he stated that Armenia does not seek NATO membership, but will continue to preserve relations with that organization.
caption: Pashinyan with Putin, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Saad Hariri and Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, 14 June 2018
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