The matter of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's successor will become a topic for serious discussion of Moscow and Yerevan, Russian political expert Sergey Markedonov has told ArmInfo.
"Naturally, the discussion will cover other issues as well. Yerevan will immediately raise the issue of its acquisitions and expenses in its integration with Russia and the Eurasian partners. I think Moscow will be unable to speak in generalities this time," he says.
The analyst thinks that the Kremlin should give serious considerations to the forthcoming electoral cycle in Armenia in 2017-18 and should start the preparations beforehand, both strategically and in PR campaigns. Markedonov stresses the need to establish contacts with all political associations, non-governmental and youth structures of the republic.
Markedonov thinks that Russia should give up constantly declaring the success of its alliance with Armenia given the fact that now the situation in the Transcaucasia depends on external factors more than ever. He says that the fate of the protracted conflicts and the prospects of the post-Soviet integration projects are mostly hanging in the balance in Donbass.
"So, along with removing the wrinkles in the Russia-Armenia relations, Moscow gives high priority to a positive dynamics in Ukraine, at least reached through long-term "freezing" of the conflict around the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," he says.