The issue of Armenian Genocide should not be submitted to historians - something Ankara insists on, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma Committee for CIS, Eurasian Integration and Compatriots, told reporters in Yerevan. He said the issue of the Armenian Genocide needs a political solution. "Our stand on the Armenian Genocide is known also to the countries that do not recognize that crime against humanity, including to Washington," the Russian parliamentarian said.
As regards the discontent of the Armenian parliamentarians at the "indistinct" formula on the Genocide in the joint statement adopted after the second meeting of the Armenian National Assembly Committee for Foreign Relations and the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Compatriots of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Slutsky said: "We should realize that sometimes it is useful to yield in small issues to win in the bigger ones." The Russian parliamentarian reiterated that his stand on the need to condemn and recognize the Armenian Genocide he voiced during his foreign visits irrespective of the stand of the country he visits. "I voiced by stand on the Armenian causes even during my meeting with Aliyev," the Russian parliamentarian said.
He is sure that Yerevan should use his strategic relations with Moscow to soften the anti-Armenian rhetoric of Baku and Ankara. "One should not be out of touch with reality, throwing words and statements around. It is necessary to use statements so that they do not lose their value," Slutsky said. In the joint statement by the Armenian National
Assembly Committee for Foreign Relations and the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Compatriots of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the sides reaffirmed their stands on the Genocide of Armenians and called on the parliaments of all countries to condemn and recognize the Genocide against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923 ahead of the Centennial of that crime against humanity. The Russian and Armenian parliamentarians welcomed participation of the State Duma delegation in the Genocide Centennial commemorations in Yerevan.
Russia recognized the Genocide of Armenians yet in 1995.