Pashinyan will not participate in CIS summit due to positive test for COVID

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on December 25 that he will not be able to attend the CIS summit due to a positive test for COVID.

"On Monday, December 23, I had a positive COVID diagnosis. <...> I will not participate in the informal summit of CIS leaders, which will be held today in St. Petersburg," he wrote on his Facebook page (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

He also informed that he would probably not participate in tomorrow's meeting of the Supreme Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Earlier, on December 19, a member of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, Artur Taymazov, spoke about the agenda of the summit of CIS leaders and the EAEU meeting. According to him, these meetings will raise the issues of settlements in national currency, food security, protection of sovereignty.

Before that, on December 17, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin called the provision of the EAEU common market with key goods and resources one of the five main directions of the organization's work. Also, according to him, the members of the alliance should strive to form a common space of cooperative interaction and cooperation in the field of technological development.