Russia first announced plans for the consulate in May 2023 following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials repeatedly visited Syunik’s capital Kapan for that purpose in the following months.
A senior Russian diplomat said in June 2024 that the mission is due to be inaugurated “by the end of the year.” However, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in November that Yerevan has still not given the final green light to its opening.
“We expect that by May we will be able to reach concrete agreements on the time frames for the opening of our consular point,” Zakharova said last month.
No such agreements were announced as a result of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Yerevan last week. Zakharova deflected all questions to the Armenian government when she was asked about the continuing uncertainty on Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan said in this regard that “discussions” regarding the Russian mission in Kapan are still going on.
“We will inform you in case of new developments,” the ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. She did not comment further.
Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition lawmaker, suggested that Yerevan is obstructing the Russian diplomatic presence in Syunik for political reasons. He said that France, which also announced in 2023 plans to open a consulate there, is facing no such hurdles.
Iran is currently the only foreign country that has a consulate in the region bordering the Islamic Republic. The Iranian mission in Kapan was inaugurated in late 2022.