Armenian leader travels to Russia despite tensions and promises economic bloc cooperation

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whose country’s relations with Russia grew tense this year, says that when Armenia takes the rotating chairmanship of a Moscow-dominated economic alliance he will try to suppress politics obstructing regional integration. Armenia is to become the chairman country of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2024. The bloc, established in 2014, includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and encourages the free movement of goods and services. Pashinyan in the past year has offended Russia by refusing to allow a Moscow-led security alliance to hold exercises in Armenia and by declining to attend an alliance summit. However, Pashiyan attended a meeting of the union’s Supreme Council in St. Petersburg on Monday.