Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have held a telephone call, discussing bilateral issues, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

"There was a discussion of pressing bilateral issues and cooperation within various integration associations, including the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization]," the statement reads.

According to the Kremlin press service, the telephone call was initiated by Armenia.

Armenia earlier initiated the replacement of the CSTO secretary general. On July 26, the country’s Special Investigative Service accused CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov of overthrowing the constitutional order in 2008 and requested a court to arrest him. Khachaturov, who was the commander of the Armenian Armed Forces’ Yerevan Garrison back in 2008, pleaded not guilty. On July 28, the Yerevan City Court of General Jurisdiction released him on his own recognizance and a bail of about $10,000.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said later that the Yerevan events "run counter to the new Armenian authorities’ recent statements" that they had no intentions "to persecute their predecessors for political reasons." The Russian top diplomat also said that being Yerevan’s ally, Moscow would like Armenia to be a stable country so Russia could not but be concerned about those developments. Lavrov pointed out that Russia’s concern was particularly related to the need to make sure that all CIS organizations that involve Armenia continued to operate normally. Lavrov was also hopeful that the issue concerning the arrests of Armenian politicians would be resolved in a constructive manner.