Russian expert Alan Kasayev: "Moscow should help Armenia restore relations with its neighbor countries"

Moscow should help Armenia restore normal relations with neighbor countries, said Alan Kasayev, chief of the head board of the CIS and Baltic states of the Russian agency of international information RIA-Novosti.

"Moscow's task for Armenia is to encourage this process without putting pressure on the loyal ally in Yerevan or reliable partners in Baku and Ankara", said Kasayev on May 23 in Yerevan during a report "The Caucasus conflicts and Kosovo precedent" at the Caucasus-2007 conference.

At the same time, Kasayev noted that prospects of Armenia's development do not depent either on Russia, "as anti-Armenian policy of Moscow is impossible to image even theoretically" or the internal reserves of the country and the people.

According to Kasayev, Russia has defined new subgroups of the post-Soviet countries and developed a new methodology, which should lay foundation of the new Russian external policy in the near abroad. "Armenia and Georgia add to the list of the third subgroup of countries and they were given time to define", said Kasayev.

As for Georgia, the expert noted that its anti-Russian rhetorics and actions of the leadership were no positive for Tbilisi, but Russia also did not gain anything by "undertaking response, unfortunately, not adequate or symmetric actions".

"The sides have realized this zero balance and seem to overcome it", said Kasayev.

/Novosti-Armenia/