Friday, June 13 2014

The statement made by the head of the Russian International Agency "Russia Today", Dmitri Kiselev, about the link between the status of the Russian language in Armenia and Russian security guarantees is a direct blackmail, secretary of the ARFD parliamentary faction, Aghvan Vardanyan, said at today's briefing in the parliament. 

He said that Russia always had such a position, but it has never made such a sharp statement. "I have got an impression that the relations between Armenia and Russia do not have a nature of the strategical partnership and are not regulated by the inter-state agreements. They remind us of the relations between a master and his vassal", - Vardanyan said and added that such statements are inadmissible and high ranked officials of Armenia should make adequate conclusions. 

For his part, secretary of the Armenian National Congress parliamentary faction, Aram Manukyan, said that Kiselev's statement is a response at the humiliating policy conducted by the authorities of Armenia. 

To note, during yesterday's regular meeting of the Armenian-Russian Friendship Club in the Armenian parliament, a remarkable conversation took place between Director General of Russia Today news agency Dmitry Kiselev and a member of the parliament from the ruling RPA, Hayk Babukhanyan.  When Babukhanyan hinted that Russia should recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh, Kiselev replied: "Start with yourself". He then touched upon the problem of the Russian language in Armenia, saying that there are no Russian schools, people are not fluent in Russian and he could not even communicate with a taxi driver in Russian. He also added that direct meddling of Russia with the Karabakh conflict will automatically result in the war. He said that if Armenia wants security guarantees from Russia, it should stimulate much spreading of the Russian language in Armenia. "When declaring about Armenia's desire to join the Eurasian Union, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said that the integration should be implemented taking into consideration the political component and security component. But integration in the context of security is impossible without the cultural component. They are inter-related", - Kiselev said.  For his part, former ambassador of Russia to Armenia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, added that Armenia should determine its political priorities, and if it has chosen Russia, in that case the Russian language should be disseminated in Armenia, though it causes displeasure in the Armenian society.