Zakharova commented on the scandalous epithets of the governor of Armenia`s Shirak region about "Ivanov"

ArmInfo. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on the scandalous epithets of David Arushanyan, governor of Armenia's Shirak region, about "Ivanov."

"I have seen other assessments and statements, and I have my own position. Firstly, we believe that such neo-Nazi rehash of the well-known derogatory rhetoric of the Nazis towards the Slavic population is unacceptable not only for government officials who declare their fervent commitment to democracy, but also for an educated person with even the slightest understanding of world history and the history of their own people," Zakharova said on October 28 during a weekly briefing in response to a request to comment on the Shirak region governor's statements.

She recalled that in such a derogatory sense, "Ivanov" "Red Ivans" or "Red Ivans" is what the Nazi invaders called Soviet soldiers, making no distinctions based on nationality. In this vein, she noted that among these "Ivans" or "Red Ivans" were approximately half a million ethnic Armenians directly from the Armenian SSR or other Soviet Republics.

"This figure who allowed himself to make such a statement—perhaps out of illiteracy, perhaps maliciously—he did not insult us; he first and foremost humiliated the people of Armenia, because he commanded those very soldiers whom the Germans called "Ivans" or "Red Ivans"—twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal Hovhannes Khachaturovich Baghramyan, who chose the name Ivan Khristoforovich for himself." "Ovanes or Oganes—that's how the name John is pronounced in Armenian, and from it comes the name Ivan, which so displeased the Armenian governor," Zakharova noted.

In this vein, Zakharova asked that the history of the Armenian people be conveyed to the governor of the Shirak region. In this vein, she presented the memoirs of Ivan Baghramyan as an ordinary private and the biographies of several other prominent Armenian figures named Ivan.

"Such openly boorish, neo-Nazi slogans have no place in any self-respecting society, especially in the Armenian one, which is so sensitive to matters of history in general and its own. We expect a clear response from the Armenian authorities, who, incidentally, are meeting in that very square." "named after that very marshal," Zakharova concluded.

It's worth noting that the governor of the Shirak region posted an angry message on his Facebook page in connection with Samvel Karapetyan's Strong Armenia party organizing festive events to mark Gyumri Day. "A few video cameras, a few concerned faces, a few high-flown phrases about 'our Gyumri' - and here's another political performance. All that's left is to find an audience. But there's a slight inconvenience here: Gyumri is not your 'Nizhniy Tabor,' and the people of Gyumri are not your 'Ivans,'" Arushanyan wrote.

The Russian Embassy in Armenia drew a parallel between the statements of Shirak region governor David Arushanyan about certain 'Ivans' and the lexicon of German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

It should be added that, since 2025, the Armenian prime minister, when hurling barbs at Russian businessman of Armenian descent Samvel Karapetyan, who early in his career did business in Kaluga, has periodically used the phrase "This isn't Nizhny Tapr, Samvel Kaluzhsky."