Pashinyan will not attend the pre-New Year meeting of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg.

“On Monday, December 23, I received confirmation of a positive COVID-19 test. I was in isolation and working remotely from home on December 23 and 24. On December 25, my test returned a negative result, and I am resuming my regular work schedule. However, after consulting with colleagues, I have decided not to participate in today’s informal summit of the CIS leaders in St. Petersburg. A decision regarding my participation in tomorrow’s meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will be made by the end of the day,” wrote Pashinyan.

The summit will include meetings in both narrow and expanded formats, as well as a cultural program. It is already known that the presidents of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, and Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, have arrived in St. Petersburg. It remains unclear whether the leader of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will participate in the informal CIS summit, as no official announcement has yet come from Akorda. In November, he received an invitation from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The following day, December 26, a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will take place in St. Petersburg, where the leaders of the countries will discuss the prospects for deepening integration within the EAEU. Currently, the Union includes Kazakhstan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan.

Earlier, Armenia suspended its participation in the CSTO. The country's Prime Minister stated that the member states of the organization had not fulfilled their obligations and were planning a war against Armenia in conjunction with Azerbaijan.

In October, at the CIS Foreign Ministers' Council in Moscow, Armenia refused to endorse joint statements on “The Principles of Ensuring Eurasian Security” and “The Unacceptability of Using Unilateral Restrictive Measures in International Relations.”