MOSCOW, June 8 -- Dmitry Peskov stood at the Kremlin podium on Monday and did something telling: he refused to say anything about Nikol Pashinyan's election victory in Armenia. What he did say instead was more revealing. Moscow, the spokesman told reporters, is carefully recording all reports of violations that took place during Sunday's vote.

The statement, brief as it was, amounts to the Kremlin's opening position on an election result it spent months trying to prevent. "We are waiting for these final results," Peskov said. "In the meantime, we are carefully recording all the messages that appear around these elections. Among other things, we are recording reports of the numerous violations that took place during these elections."

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