US financial support vitally important for some of its allies - expert

Presenting the 2013 draft budget, US President Barack Obama announced that US financial aid to Armenia should be decreased by 19 per cent, meaning that in 2013 the United States may allocate only $27 million (with $40 million this year).

VK asked Andrey Areshev, the deputy head of the Strategic Research Center, to comment on the situation.

The sum announced by President Obama is not the final sum of the US financial aid to Armenia, the expert says, but some changes are evident, he admits.

According to Areshev, this may show that the US is trying to increase pressure on Armenia, as it wants to resolve the Turkish-Armenian conflict. "We know that the Turkish authorities are also under pressure," he says.