ArmInfo. There are no trends in the provision of political asylum in the Russian Federation to persons wanted in Armenia. This was announced on September 11 in Yerevan on the sidelines of the conference "Peace on the Eve of the Second World War" dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin told reporters.
To the remark that former head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service Mihran Poghosyan, theformer Minister of Defense Mikayel Harutyunyan, are in Russia today, the Ambassador asked: Has Poghosyan received political asylum in Russia? I do not have such information! Where do you see such trends, I do not see those! If a person is in Russia, this does not mean that he received political asylum. "
As regards Poghosyan, the diplomat continued, " the question is about simply a legal procedure for providing the necessary documents".
According to the Ambassador, questions regarding wanted persons should be addressed to the competent authorities. "The factor of citizenship may play a role here. I don't know specifically, personally: But I repeat that I'm not observing any tendency and I don't see any message here," Kopyrkin concluded.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office Arevik Khachatryan said that the Russian side refused to extradite Mihran Poghosyan, former head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service, who is accused of embezzlement.
At the end of December 2018, the press secretary of the Special Investigation Service of Armenia, Marina Ohanjanyan, reported that the Russian Federation confirmed the Russian citizenship of former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan, wanted by the Armenian authorities on charges of overthrowing the constitutional order and notified Yerevan that his search was canceled.
The former head of the riot investigation team in March 2008, Vahagn Harutyunyan, is also in the Russian Federation.