OREANDA-NEWS The Kremlin hopes that Russia and Armenia will go through a difficult period in relations and cooperation with Moscow will prevail in Yerevan, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Now we have a rather difficult period in our relations with friendly, fraternal Armenia. It is even more than fraternal, because there are even more Armenians living in our country than in Armenia itself," Peskov said in an interview.

He recalled that "the economic activity of these Armenians, citizens of the Russian Federation, still provides a very large percentage of the total budget of Armenia (...): we are talking about several billion dollars a year."

"But the Caucasus region, unfortunately, attracts the attention of various extra-regional forces. We are convinced that the participation of these forces should be severely limited, because it is not capable of bringing stability and prosperity there. Therefore, we hope that the political will to continue the development of our relations will prevail in Yerevan, and we will successfully go through this difficult period," the press secretary of the head of state said.