Putin on the military base in Armenia: We will leave at least tomorrow

If Armenia believes that it does not need a Russian base in Gyumri, we will leave tomorrow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"Is Armenia ready for this? We will not impose anything on anyone. And if the Armenian people want to have a base, then we will stay," the Russian president said at a briefing after the SCO summit.

Putin noted that Russia and Armenia agreed to conduct a dialogue on the EAEU and the EU in a calm mode, so he invited Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Moscow to "sit down and go through different points."

Among the topics of bilateral negotiations, the Russian leader called Yerevan's position between the EAEU or The EU and the concession for the railways of Armenia. Russia has deep roots with the Armenian people, but it is impossible for Armenia to be part of both the EU and the EAEU, the Russian president repeated.

"We have historical ties of friendship with the Armenian people and even more than friendship — we have very deep roots of relations with Armenians, with the Armenian people in general, with Armenians in this region of the world as well. But just being in one and in another organization at the same time is impossible — phytosanitary norms, technical standards and much more are incompatible today," Putin said.

Speaking about the problems around the CSTO, the Russian President noted that the problem around Karabakh has become decisive in the current relations between Russia and Armenia.

"It all started with the problems of Karabakh. The Armenian leadership, the Prime Minister himself, signed the relevant paper in Prague and recognized that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. Since that moment, our position on this issue has become very ambivalent. Can we or should we interfere in the internal political affairs of Azerbaijan?" — He said.