ArmInfo. Congratulating Kocharyan's birthday, when he is in prison, Russian President Vladimir Putin intervenes in the affairs of Armenia. The former Vice-Sspeaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Karapet Rubinyan, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"I am convinced that the Kremlin understands perfectly how our people treat to Kocharyan. Nevertheless, the President of Russia is congratulating this man for the second time, thereby completely neglecting the feelings of our citizens. I assess this as interference in internal affairs, which, at the same time, is destabilizing in nature, "he stressed.
According to the former Vice-Speaker, this attitude is due to the lack of animosity on the part of Moscow towards colleagues in Yerevan, which is due to the process of democratization of Armenia, which began after the change of power. And democracy, according to Rubinyan, poses a great danger to the oligarchic Russian system of government.
According to Rubinyan, after almost three decades of independence, Armenia continues to be under the influence of Russia, which in the post-revolutionary period is due to the fears of the current authorities on the difficulties of a possible external destructive intervention.
"Meanwhile, I am convinced that today our country has the ability, let us say so, to succumb to Russian pressure to a much lesser extent than yesterday. However, for some reason, these opportunities are not used. In the end, Armenia has its place and role in the geopolitical "A place that allows us to quietly diversify our foreign policy, which we don't do solely for the reasons mentioned above," Rubinyan summed up.
On September 20, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin described the escalation of the situation around Russia's position in the case under the arrest of Robert Kocharyan as artificial. According to him, "some media that seek to cast a shadow on fraternal Russian-Armenian relations deliberately" heat up "this topic in their interests." As an example of such a policy, the ambassador called media coverage of his meeting with Kocharyan, as well as speculation caused by congratulations by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kocharyan on the occasion of his birthday. Earlier, Armenian Ambassador to the Russian Federation VardanToghanyan stated that Putin's birthday greetings to Kocharyan "there is nothing extraordinary", especially "there can be no question of any interference in the internal affairs of Armenia".