Wednesday, September 19 2018 14:58

ArmInfo. "During all 8 years of my presidency and presidency of Vladimir Putin we worked closely, the relationship was absolutely honest, the results were  stunning," the second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan stated  in an interview with Kommersant.  

According to him, prior to that,  there were almost no Russian investments in Armenia. "Now look how  many serious, large and interesting Russian companies have entered  the Armenian market, not to mention military-technical relations. Of  course, we have developed personal relationships as well, and we have  never lied to each other. This relationship was very sincere and  frank. Both he and I have always believed that it is necessary to  speak directly about problems, to solve them, to negotiate, not to  make tensions public (and tensions are usual in relations). As soon  as  they are made public, one has to prove to the same public who is  right and who is wrong, and this becomes a serious obstacle in the  search for real compromises. There are such examples in other  countries within the Eurasian community. This long cooperation has  brought us closer personally. Our contacts continued all the time  after my presidency. I did not publicize them and did not try to  capitalize in any way. I treat him with great respect, I feel that  his attitude to me is similar, "Kocharyan admitted, adding that the  discussions with Putin were never limited to the situation in  Armenia, they touched upon a much broader range of issues.

At the same time, Kocharyan stressed that Armenia is a small country,  and if there is a feeling of vassall relations, then these relations  will never grow into friendship. "It is clear that Russia and Armenia  are not comparable in their potential, but if you have inner freedom,  then as a person you do not build relations under the pressure of de  facto unequal resources. I have seen at various summits, as a lot of  leaders of small states are hovering around the US president. Well,  there can not be friendship there! There may be some sort of vassal  relations. If we are talking about friendship, we should talk about  personal relationships. On personal relations no matter the size of  the state this or that president heads. What I liked about him  (Vladimir Putin- "Kommersant") was that he never tried to emphasize  that he is the president of the country, which is thirty times bigger  than Armenia. He never did it, "explained the second president of  Armenia.