President Vladimir Putin on Friday gave a Russian state medal to Tigran Sarkisian, a former Armenian prime minister who has headed the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) for the last four years.

Putin said Sarkisian has helped to strengthen the Russian-led trade bloc and Russian-Armenian relations as he awarded the latter the Order of Friendship during an EEU summit held in Saint-Petersburg.

“Under his leadership, the Eurasian Economic Commission has worked in the last four years smoothly and without hiccups, successfully solving all of the most serious issues on our integration agenda,” he told fellow heads of state from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

“Tigran Surenovich [Sarkisian] has done a lot for the EEU to become a truly effective economic grouping, made great efforts to enhance the international authority of the Eurasian Union and built up the EEU’s partnership with other states and integration structures,” he said.

“He demonstrated patience despite the fact that discussions on issues that had to be agreed upon were not easy. Within the framework of heated discussions he found the strength to endure all that,” added Putin.

Putin also praised Sarkisian for paying “constant attention to expanding multi-faceted Russian-Armenian cooperation” in his past capacities as Armenian prime minister and governor of the country’s Central Bank.