ArmInfo.There are no political overtones in the criminal prosecution of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, Sasun Khachatryan, the head of the Special Investigative Service of Armenia (SIS), stated in an interview with journalists on August 2, referring to the statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the events in Armenia are contrary to the statements of the new leadership of the country about refusing to pursue their political predecessors .
According to Khachatryan, he is not the official who should comment on the words of the foreign minister of another country. "For my part, as the head of the SIS, I can say that there is no political persecution, the process develops strictly within the framework of legal procedures," he said. In addition, addressing to all those people who speculate on the information that SIS accusation contains a provision that casts doubt on the results of the 2008 elections, Sasun Khachatryan officially declared that no such provision exists. "We do not question the results of the elections - we just noted that those citizens who considered the election results rigged went to the street to protect their interests," he explained.
To note, earlier Russian Foregin Minister Sergey Lavrov made a statement, which reads in part: ''When there was a political crisis in Armenia in May, we noted with great satisfaction that the solution to the crisis was found through a compromise involving the leading parties. We hoped that, based on this outcome, all the political forces, primarily the new Armenian government, would continue to promote unifying approaches and attempt to consolidate national consensus.
However, recent events have clearly run counter to such a positive outlook and to the new Armenian leaders' recent statements to the effect that it does not plan to persecute its predecessors for political reasons.
As an ally, Russia has always been interested in stability in Armenia. So recent developments are a cause for concern, including from the point of view of normal operations of the CIS organisations, of which Armenia is a participant. Over the past few days we have brought our concerns to the attention of Armenia's leaders on several occasions. We expect that the situation will nevertheless follow a constructive path''.