Leader of the Heritage Party of Armenia Raffi Ovannisyan, the candidate coming second at the presidential election, visited Moscow on April 12. He said after returning back to Armenia that he had been invited to Moscow.
The Kremlin denied rumours about Ovannisyan’s meeting with Vladimir Chernov, head of the Presidential Office for Interregional and Cultural Ties.
Alexey Vlasov, Editor-in-Chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, said that Russia was not planning to grant any political benefits to figures like Ovannisyan. The government and opposition in Armenia are trying to understand Kremlin’s attitude towards the political developments in Armenia.
Vlasov noted that Ovannisyan was of pro-Western vector. The expert believes that Russia is more interested in supporting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Ovannisyan did not speak for Eurasian integration during his campaign and was critical about the strategic ally of Armenia.
Alexander Skakov, coordinator of a working group of the Institute for Central Asia and Caucasus of the Institute for oriental Studies of the RAS, supposes that Raffi Ovannisyan is trying to convince Moscow that he is not an anti-Russian project. Russia needs to know the details of interior political life in Armenia.
Skakov believes that Ovannisyan wants to change Moscow’s image of opposition. He confirmed that many people in Moscow considered the Armenian opposition leader a pro-Western figure..
