‘Russia applies the law’: businessman on problems with export of Armenian goods to Russia

Russia talks to us only by law, businessman-farmer Harutyun Mnatsakanyan told Alpha News.

“Russia made it clear to us that our product has many problems, and it has turned a blind eye to these problems for a long time. That country tried several times to make it clear that we should solve these problems. If we proceed like this, tomorrow they will simply prohibit the export of products that do not meet their standards,” Mnatsakanyan said.

Our interlocutor believes that this is how Russia conducts its diplomacy, and we must understand whether it will be beneficial for us to enter the Russian market in the future or not.

“There is an expression: For my friends, everything; for others, the law. Now Russia talks to us only by law. It is a diplomatic step. We should also understand what kind of response we should give to those diplomatic steps, how we should react, and whether it is beneficial for us to enter the Russian market with products of the same quality in the future—if Russia wants to apply a clear law to prohibit the export—or whether we should start working on improving the quality of our products,” Mnatsakanyan said.