The Armenian government issued the following statement regarding a private conversation between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin that took place in Saint Petersburg yesterday. The two met onn the sidelines of the informal CIS summit.

In his speech Vladimir Putin particularly noted: "Dear Nikol Vovaevich, quite recently the meeting of the intergovernmental commission took place, our colleagues noted that the situation in the economic sphere is developing quite positively. During the first 10 months of the current year, the trade turnover increased by 73 percent, which is a good result.

We started yesterday, we also managed to have a trialogue, of course the main issue in general is the settlement of the situation in the South Caucasus, Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, everything related to Karabakh. And as we agreed, we discuss all these issues in detail."

Prime Minister Pashinyan said. "Thank you Vladimir Vladimirovich, first of all let me thank you for the invitation and the organization of the CIS informal summit. This is already becoming a good tradition.

Of course, you are right, the main issue at the moment, the most urgent issue is the crisis that exists in the Lachin Corridor. You know, Lacin Corridor has been closed for almost 20 days. It is the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh. I would like to remind that according to the trilateral declaration of the President of Russia, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Lachin Corridor should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers, and the Republic of Azerbaijan has guaranteed the unimpeded movement of passengers, goods, and people through the Lachin Corridor.

Now it turns out that the Lachin Corridor is not under the control of Russian peacekeepers, and I would like to discuss that situation and the available variants.

Thank you for the meeting”.