One of the main purposes of RA President Kocharyan’s visit to Moscow was the correction of Putin’s administration’s approach regarding the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia. Although the agenda of the visit didn’t anticipate anything like that, however the Russian media has actively mentioned such talks. According to our Russian sources, during the closed-door meeting with Kocharyan, Putin told the latter that the only way to prevent the possible negotiations of the Karabagh conflict and unfavorable resolutions is Kocharyan’s resignation before the completion of his term. Our sources also claim that Putin has told Kocharyan that his government doesn’t want Kocharyan to step down from office because the Kocharyan is well accepted by the Russian government and is a loyal friend to Russia, however Kocharyan’s resignation is inevitable for the solution of the Karabagh conflict especially when the US is strongly pressuring to resolve the conflict (on the threshold of elections). Therefore sacrifices and “governmental amputations” are needed for common welfare. In other words, the official Moscow has offered Kocharyan to leave voluntarily meanwhile offering him quite tempting versions, such as high sponsorship by Russia. In particular, Putin offered Kocharyan to think about being appointed president of one of the greatest regional projects of “Gazprom” (this suggestion pretty much looks like what Russia has offered or promised to Gerard Schroeder {to give position} in Gazprom during his last nomination, after which he failed.) or to think of the outook of becoming a CIS secretary. Of course, in the last option certain issues and conflicts may originate regarding Kocharyan’s candidature – the possibility that Azerbaijan might mind but definitely Putin gave guarantees that it won’t happen. Our sources claim that Kocharyan in his turn offered Putin to start thinking about becoming Prime-Minister of Russia. Also, the mayor of Moscow, Luzhkov has promised that he’ll be lobbying for Kocharyan’s nomination since Luzhkov has had very close ties with RA President for years. Meanwhile, our sources believe that the reason why Kocharyan accidentally met with the deputy-prime minister of Russia, Dmitriy Medvedyev, and Minister of Energy Victor Khristenko, is that they not only discussed energetic issues but also the possible submission of the mentioned position in Gazprom.
