Armenian PM will not attend Putin's "inauguration"

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will not attend Vladimir Putin's "inauguration" ceremony following his so-called re-election.

As reported by News.am, when asked whether the Armenian Prime Minister would be visiting Moscow to attend the ceremony, Alen Simonyan, the speaker of the Armenian Parliament, answered no.

"But I believe that we should participate in the EAEU meeting as a presiding country," Simonyan added. (The Customs Union of the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, is a customs union of five post-Soviet states, including Russia and Armenia.)

Pashinyan himself recently said his attendance at the Eurasian Economic Union meeting was being discussed, but had left the question of whether he would attend Putin's "inauguration" unanswered.

Czechia, Estonia and Latvia have already confirmed that their representatives will not be attending Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s so-called inauguration on 7 May.

Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, is opposed to European Union representatives attending the "inauguration" ceremony for Russian leader Vladimir Putin following his sham re-election.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it sees no reason to recognise Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as the democratically elected and legitimate president of Russia.

After the sham "elections" in Russia, Putin has lost his legitimacy as Russia's president, so from 19 March 2024, the outlets of the Ukrainska Pravda group have not used the word "president" to refer to Vladimir Putin. Here we explain why this change is important.