Russia’s Kommersant daily highlights Pashinyan-Aliyev conversation at CIS summit

The Russian Kommersant daily newspaper has weighed in on the brief conversation between Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that took place within the framework of the CIS summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

As reported earlier, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders had a short conversation after posing for a group photo ahead of the summit.

Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov wrote about the meeting’s details.

“CIS leaders were heading to take photos. The presidents of Russia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan were in front. The Armenian Prime Minister was walking behind them. Meanwhile Ilham Aliyev walked and reached Nikol Pashinyan and began talking to him, not because walking silently next to each other was uncomfortable, but because Ilham Aliyev had something to say, and Pashinyan had something to listen,” Kolesnikov says.

According to him, Pashinyan and Aliyev got carried away by talking so much that even after posing for photos they continued talking. The two stood next to each other at the photographing ceremony as required by protocol standards given the alphabetical order.

“During these few minutes one could’ve agreed about a lot more than during one and a half hour long bilateral official meetings, which, by the way, perhaps isn’t that far away now,” he said.

Kolesnikov also mentioned the Pashinyan-Putin meeting after the summit, which was initiated by the Armenian PM. Kolesnikov says that during the 5-6 minute long conversation Putin seemed to be more carried away than Pashinyan. “Let’s see what will happen next,” he said.

As reported earlier, the Armenian Prime Minister said on Facebook that he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to de-escalate the situation in the border and to prevent incidents.