ArmInfo. Since 2018, when a new government was formed in the country, Armenia did not participate in illegal arms deals with third countries. Deputy Minister of Defense of Armenia Gabriel Balayan stated this on June 3 in an interview with reporters.
The deputy minister stressed that the law "On Licensing" was amended according to which legal relations are determined related to the import, transit, production, and export of military products. These changes were introduced due to the fact that the international image of Armenia fell due to the implementation of certain transactions. As a result of all this, the government decided to regulate this situation>, - Balayan emphasized, however, he did not begin to explain which deals in particular. "All such conversations on these topics today have a political connotation, it's just political speculation," he emphasized.
Balayan also emphasized that the current Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, who previously held the post of Deputy Minister of Defense, did not participate in illegal transactions. , Balayan concluded.
It should be noted that the brother-in-law of the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, on the run on the investigation, Mikael Minasyan, said during a live broadcast on Facebook that allegedly the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was organizing the resale of arms purchased from Russia to third countries. Minasyan in his speech also touched upon businessman David Galstyan, through whom these transactions were carried out. The Prosecutor General's Office instructed the National Security Council of Armenia to study all the data and details that Minasyan provides.