ArmInfo.Andranik Kocharyan, MP from the "My Step" faction, head of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense and Security, said that the brother-in-law of Armenia's Prime Minister Hrachya Hakobyan is not connected with the case of cigarette smuggling.
To recall, on April 29, the Boylernaya channel on Telegram reported, that an attempt was made to smuggle a batch of Armenian cigarettes of various brands with a tonnage of 40 tons or 2700 boxes through Krasnodar. According to the report, the market value of the cargo is more than 300 million rubles. <The plane that flew from Yerevan with stops in Krasnodar and then in Dushanbe, was heading to Afghanistan>, the source said. Wanted son-in-law of the third president of Armenia Mikael Minasyan immediately accused the family of Prime Minister Pashinyan of smuggling. During the briefing, Kocharyan noted that Hakobyan in no way involved in these schemes, but son-in-law of third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Mikael Minasyan, might as well have. "This issue should be studied, however, it is so obvious that oligarchs who, under the previous government, did not bear any punishment for their actions, can stand behind such actions," the MP emphasized. The head of the Committee on Defense and Security, also noted that it should find out who exactly in Armenia is connected in one way or another with the cigarette business. <Thus, Vardan Harutyunyan, the former head of the State Revenue Committee, may come to our minds. If you constantly delve into this topic, you can find out a lot of interesting things. Armenian law enforcers should tackle this issue and stop all speculations on this subject>, Kocharian noted.
The MP also emphasized that the law enforcement bodies of Armenia have not yet received information on smuggled cargo from their Russian colleagues.