The Defense Ministry's "talking head"—the deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, also the commander of one of the "Akhmat" formations—has been promoting the idea of a global, joint confrontation between Russian Muslims and Christians against "Satanism" since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. He regularly finds himself in various scrapes: with the Zetniks, with nationalists, and with Orthodox priests. And the more he tries to "cross a snake and a hedgehog" with his obvious desire to be "one of the guys," the more harshly he is criticized from all sides.
On Sunday, December 21, an expanded meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEEC) was held in St. Petersburg. The meeting, chaired by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, was attended by the heads of state of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Chairman of the EAEU Board, Bakytzhan Sagintayev.
The event was attended by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Russia on a two-day visit. During his speech, he noted "prospects for developing trade and logistics cooperation based on the principles of reciprocity, equality, as well as sovereignty and national jurisdictions," emphasizing that "the favorable and constructive changes taking place are creating new opportunities for all countries in the wider region." In this context, the Armenian leader thanked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for his decision to unblock cargo transit through his country to Armenia and for "creating conditions for the launch of bilateral trade."
"This is one of the first important achievements in establishing peace and stability in the region," Pashinyan said.
An informal summit of CIS leaders is scheduled for December 22. As part of the events in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold separate talks with Pashinyan and Aliyev.