ArmInfo. Presidents of Russia Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed the issue related to the Secretary General of the CSTO.
According to the Kremlin's official website, Nazarbayev during a meeting with Putin, who arrived in Kazakhstan to attend the Fifth Caspian Summit, said in particular: "Our bilateral relations have been developing in all areas. This year, we will have an interregional meeting in Petropavlovsk, and a CIS meeting in Dushanbe, as far as I remember. During all these meetings, you and I meet separately to discuss our bilateral relations; this helps us resolve all our issues. Among the questions we have yet to discuss is the issue of CSTO Secretary-General, which has become a problem now. Our economic ties within the EEU and bilateral ties are on the upswing, for which I am grateful to you and the Russian Government. In turn, Putin, referring to broad relations within the CSTO, the EEU, stated that they have a substantial agenda and a large programme. ''There are several problematic issues, you have just mentioned one of them regarding CSTO. But as regards bilateral relations, our mutual trade is growing, and major projects, which we talk about and which we support, are developing, such as Baiterek and other programmes, as well as our cooperation in the energy and transport sectors. Overall, there are numerous interesting initiatives'', Putin said. To recall, CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order in the so-called "March 1, 2008 case." At that time he held the post of the head of the Yerevan garrison. By a court decision of July 28, he was arrested and then released on bail in the amount of 5 million drams. Within the same case, the second Armenian President Robert Kocharian has also been accues and now is under arrest for 2 months and former head of the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia Mikael Harutyunyan, is on the wanted list.
On August 2, the Special Investigative Service stated that the preventive measure chosen against Yuri Khachaturov is not an obstacle for him to leave Armenia for some time. At the same time, the SIS did not detail the permissible period of its absence.
Official Yerevan offered CSTO colleagues to consider the possibility of replacing the candidacy of the CSTO Secretary General from Armenia in connection with the criminal prosecution of Yuri Khachaturov.