Zakharova: EU manually controlled Armenia`s parliamentary elections 

ArmInfo. The European Union manually controlled the parliamentary elections in Armenia, as stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova during a weekly briefing on June 10.

"The reality of events happening in Armenia could have been  overlooked only by those who weren't following the developments at  all. Anyone who was even slightly aware of the situation couldn't  have failed to notice how the European Union literally was trying to  manually controlled the electoral cycle. This includes the rapid  response mission to hybrid threats, the massive landing of troops to  stage political shows in Yerevan in the midst of the election  campaign, and the calls from Ursula von der Leyen on June 4, who  urgently raised money to support Armenia," the Russian diplomat said.  According to her, the icing on the cake was the visit of the head of  the EU delegation to Armenia to the republic's Central Electoral  Commission before the vote count began. She added that, in pursuit of  the desired result, the EU easily turned a blind eye to anything  called democracy and the rule of law, forgetting and throwing away  its own slogans about non-interference in the internal affairs of  another state, and promises of non-interference in the electoral  processes of sovereign nations.

Zakharova is confident that the EU is trying to upend everything  related to the election results. "The support for the Civil Contract  party, despite all the manipulations of the current authorities,  including primarily repression—not pressure and coercion, but  repression against the opposition, and the massive use of  administrative resources—has noticeably decreased compared to  previous elections. There is a clear demand in Armenian society for  the preservation and progressive development of Armenian-Russian  ties, which bring real, not imaginary, dividends to the Armenian  people," she said. She also questioned who Armenia would be asked to  join for the sake of its European prospects. She emphasized that the  level of manipulation and fraud on the EU's part is beyond the pale.  She also called the dilemma being introduced immediately before the  elections, that the upcoming electoral process is a fateful election  between the EU and Russia, to be manipulative.

"Furthermore, this is cynical manipulation that has nothing to do  with the genuine interests of the Armenian people. This is clearly an  attempt to divide Armenia from within, to tear people apart. It  literally undermines the socioeconomic ties between our countries,  expands its sphere of influence in the region, and sets Yerevan  against Russia and those states that are not prepared to dance to the  tune of Euro-liberal elites. Let me remind you that Armenia doesn't  even have EU candidate status," she concluded.