Russian spy chief meets Armenian PM days after CIA chief Burns did

Members take heed to Sergey Naryshkin, the top of Russia’s international intelligence company, throughout the annual Moscow Convention on Worldwide Safety (MCIS) in Moscow, Russia April 4, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/Information

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) – The chief of Russia’s international spy service met Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan this week, simply three days after CIA Director William Burns visited Yerevan for talks, the Armenian authorities stated.

Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s Overseas Intelligence Service (SVR), met Pashinyan on July 18 in the identical room the place Pashinyan obtained Burns on July 15, in response to footage of the 2 conferences launched by the Armenian authorities.

Armenian statements on the 2 conferences had been related: they mentioned bilateral relations and in addition questions of worldwide and regional safety, together with within the South Caucasus, the Armenian authorities stated.

Russia’s Sputnik state information company quoted Naryshkin as saying: “My go to to Yerevan is unquestionably not related with the arrival of my American colleague. However I don’t exclude that his go to is quite the opposite related with mine.”

Armenia is a Russian ally and Moscow has peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian-controlled area of Azerbaijan, the place Armenian forces had been pushed again in a disastrous battle in opposition to Azerbaijan in 2020. In current months, Armenia has held talks geared toward normalising relations with its NATO-member neighbour Turkey.

Reporting by Man Faulconbridge
Enhancing by Peter Graff

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.