YEREVAN (Sputnik) — Sargsyan appointed former mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan to the post on September 13.
"That is not so. That is absurd," Peskov told reporters in response to requests to confirm or deny media reports of possible coordination in Sochi last month.
Asked to evaluate Russia's influence on Armenia's domestic policy, Peskov stressed, "Russia is always very careful not to do anything that could be interpreted as interference in the internal affairs of other countries, all the more of our closest partners."
Armenia's ruling Republican Party approved Karapetyan’s candidacy on September 8, following the resignation of Hovik Abrahamyan.
Karapetyan, born in 1963, served as the mayor of Yerevan in 2010-2011, which was followed by five years as the first vice president of Gazprombank in 2011-2016. In 2012-2016 Karapetyan also served as the deputy director general of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia's energy giant.
