Minsk says it will not allow Armenian officials to lecture Belarus

When poverty soars already exceeding 40% at the upper threshold, while unemployment rises and entire regions stagnate, the easiest thing is to appoint an “external enemy,” said Ruslan Varankov, commenting on statements by Alen Simonyan.

Earlier, Simonyan said he “will not allow Armenia to be turned into a province and will not be governed following the example of Belarus.”

Varankov stressed that the Armenian parliament speaker’s remarks are nothing more than pre-election populism and a desperate attempt to distract his own voters from severe domestic problems.

“When poverty soars, already exceeding 40% at the upper threshold, while unemployment rises and entire regions stagnate, the easiest thing is to appoint an ‘external enemy’ and resort to offensive labeling,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.