Epress.am News from Armenia
Some analysts forecast that the influence of the West is increasing in Armenia and that Russia’s influence will drop to zero by 2013 seems realistic, said Director of the Institute for Political and Social Studies in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea Region Vladimir Zakharov during a press conference today.
“The US Ambassador in Armenia is a very experienced person, who first gained experience in Maidan [Ukraine], then brought this practice to life in Kyrgyzstan. They sent her to Armenia on a mission,” he said.
According to Zakharov, he has numerously heard that US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch is an amazing woman. “Perhaps she is an amazing woman, but she is an experienced intelligence agent and experienced military officer.”
Zakharov noted that Yovanovitch has a military rank. Moreover, she graduated from American educational establishments (in particular, the National War College) and “wasn’t sent here just because.”
“She is actually carrying out quite serious work; above all, involving a wide range of NGOs, meetings with students behind closed doors. All this is very serious,” he said.
On the matter of Armenian-Russian relations, Zakharov said, “everything is not as smooth and perfect as it seems to some Russian analysts.”
“I recall the words of Avetik Isahakyan [in fact, Khachatur Abovyan], ‘Blessed be the day, when the leg of a Russian soldier’… well you know this quote. There was a time when indeed they blessed, but times have changed. Now are other times, other relations,” he said, noting that Russia has to work more seriously and develop certain policy in its relations with Armenia.