Thursday, September 6 2018 17:28

ArmInfo. I do not think that  the issue of criminal prosecution of the second president of Armenia  Robert Kocharyan can take a separate place in the agenda of the  meeting of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President  Vladimir Putin. Armen Rustamyan, head of the ARF faction  "Dashnaktsutyun" stated this on September 6 in a conversation with  journalists.

At the same time, he noted that Kocharyan had very warm relations  with Putin. Nevertheless, Rustamyan does not share the opinion that  Moscow is supporting Kocharyan. According to him, Moscow's reaction  to the processes in Armenia is conditioned by its interests in the  region: "Russia has its interests in Armenia and the region, of  course, it has no right to interfere in our affairs, but may have  concerns about certain processes, say, Yuri Khachaturov, who  obviously stands in the way of the image of this organization,  because it is difficult to imagine that the NATO secretary general  can be put in the dock before he does not withdraw it. "Russia  reminds us that, despite the internal situation we should not violate  our obligations to the EEA and CSTO, in this situation it is very  important whether the post of Secretary General of the CSTO remains  for Armenia or not."

Returning to Kocharyan, Rustamyan noted that if he did not escape  from the investigation, and returned to his homeland from abroad, it  shows that the second president is confident of his innocence, and  can prove it. "By his conduct, Robert Kocharyan proves that he can  prove his innocence, but it also speaks about the high level of our  system of justice, that is, if you do not believe the court, then  there is no sense in returning. In such cases, some officials ask for  political asylum in foreign countries, but in our case this did not  happen, "Rustamyan said.

Referring to the information about Moscow's refusal to extradite  former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan to Armenian justice,  together with Kocharyan and Khachaturov, accused of overthrowing the  constitutional order within the framework of the case on March 1,  2008, Rustamyan said that such a situation is indeed a matter of  concern. "We need to think in which way it is possible to solve such  questions." If this is true, Russia directly says that the situation  around the case on March 1. does not inspire her, to put it mildly, I  think the answer to the question of why we will find out after the  meeting is Putin -Pashinyan: And I do not rule out that this issue  should be discussed, such situations should not negatively affect our  diplomatic relations, "the deputy noted.