Armenian protest leader pauses strike for talks with ruling party

Yerevan: The leader of a protest movement that has rocked Armenia on Tuesday called a pause in a campaign of civil disobedience while he seeks assurances that the ruling party will back him to be the next prime minister.
Nikol Pashinyan announced the one-day timeout in the ex-Soviet country after a day of protests against the ruling elite that blocked roads and railways and brought parts of the country to a standstill.
With tens of thousands of Pashinyan's supporters gathering for a rally in the capital, Yerevan, the head of the ruling Republican Party in parliament, Vahram Baghdasaryan offered what appeared to be an olive branch. He told reporters that when parliament votes on who will fill the vacant prime minister's post, his party will not put forward its own candidate and will back whoever is nominated.
So far, Pashinyan is the only nominee. Baghdasaryan did not say explicitly though that this meant his party would back Pashinyan, a 42-year-old former journalist who has spent time in jail for fomenting unrest and accuses the ruling elite of corruption and cronyism.
If the Republican Party does back Pashinyan in the vote, due to take place on May 8, it would mark a dramatic shift in power in Armenia, where the same cadre of people have dominated since the late 1990s.
The standoff is being watched closely by Russia, which sees Armenia as a close ally and is wary that it could go the same way as Ukraine in 2014, where an uprising swept to power new leaders who pulled the country out of Moscow's orbit.