The current leadership of Armenia is addressing other issues: Lavrov on the arrest of Robert Kocharyan

Another president, Sargsyan, is also under investigation; he was the Minister of Defense under Kocharyan and later became president. Our Foreign Ministry’s position is that we act in the interests of the Armenian people. This was stated by Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, in response to a qestion from RBC about the fact that Robert Kocharyan, Armenia’s second president, has been arrested for two months, as has his son. In fact, we saw Armenian security forces who infiltrated all the business structures of this family. What is the position of the Russian Foreign Ministry?

“We see how the interests of the Armenian people have been intertwined with the interests of our people for centuries. And we have always been together, in solidarity with each other, for long, long periods of time. Russia has repeatedly helped the Armenian people and the Armenian leadership in difficult situations. These interests, of course, should take precedence. But now the current representatives of the leadership in Yerevan are guided by other goals. The goal of aligning with the European Union has been declared, and a law has been adopted to initiate the process of joining the European Union. At the May summit, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union issued a statement calling on the Armenian leadership to hold a referendum and decide: do you want to join the European Union or do you want to remain in the Eurasian Economic Union? In my opinion, this is a completely justified request. The norms of one organization are incompatible with the norms of another. This has been stated many times.

But the Prime Minister of Armenia, Mr. Pashinyan, said: I will decide when the time comes. But what does “when the time comes” mean if you’ve already passed a law on the start of Armenia’s accession to the European Union? Just the other day, I read that Mr. Pashinyan said that we can talk about a referendum only when an application to the European Union is submitted, there is a response to it, and a “roadmap” for this accession is prepared, then the referendum will take place. In my opinion, this doesn’t show very much trust in Armenian voters and the Armenian people. We need to demonstrate a clear choice, what you’re choosing between: [joining the European Union and] the way you’re living now, when over the past three years, trade turnover has exceeded $6 billion, and in one year it reached $12 billion, and the country has been developing thanks to the Eurasian Economic Union,” Lavrov noted.