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RF to remain Armenia’s key partner under any government, says Armenian opposition leader

"We are not going to make any sharp geopolitical moves," Nikol Pashinyan added

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan Artem Geodakyan/TASS

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan

© Artem Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan is confident that Russia will remain Armenia’s key partner under any government, he said in an interview with the Weekly Roundup program on NTV channel on Sunday.

"Definitely," he said, answering a question on whether Russia will remain Armenia’s key partner. "I may guarantee that there will be no government in Armenia in the near future that will say anything different from that."

"We are not going to make any sharp geopolitical moves," Pashinyan added.

Opposition activists started mass rallies in Armenia on April 13. On April 23, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned amid protests, and on April 25 the ruling coalition dissolved after the Dashnaktsutyun party had withdrawn from it. An election of the prime minister will be held in the parliament on May 1. Three parliamentary factions - Tsarukyan Bloc, Dashnaktsutyun and Yelk - already declared that they are ready to vote for Pashinyan’s candidacy. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia will not nominate its candidate.

Pashinyan (an MP from the Yelk faction) will become prime minister if 53 out of 105 (a simple majority) of MPs of the one-chamber parliament vote for him. The faction of the ruling Republic Party of Armenia has 58 seats in the parliament, Yelk has nine, and Dashnaktsutyun, seven. The Tsarukyan Bloc has 31 more seats in the parliament.

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