Serzh Sargsyan acknowledged Pashinyan`s victory in the past early  elections, but with a reservation

ArmInfo. The third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, acknowledged the victory of the incumbent RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the recent early elections, but  with a reservation.

Thus, in an interview with the BBC Russian Service, answering the  relevant question, Sargsyan said in particular: "Yes, I believe that  he won the elections, but there are many questions related to this  victory." Among these issues, he named the change in the electoral  code a month and a half before the vote, the use of administrative  resources, arrests and searches of the bloc's activists, and threats.   Referring to the outflow of the population from the country during  his tenure in power, Sargsyan expressed his conviction that  emigration and despair are the results of inflated expectations,  opposition disinformation and the activity of external enemies.

"You know, expectations have probably surpassed reality, and such a  disappointment arose. In the modern world, when everyone can at any  second see how they live in Paris or elsewhere, this person may  always have a desire to live in the same socio-economic conditions.  We tried to explain to people that in 30 years it is impossible to  build such a country, which was built for 200-300 years, "Sargsyan  says.  "The second [circumstance], I think, is that, of course, we  had allies and partners, but there were also sworn opponents who had  a great influence on public opinion. And in fact, they managed to  turn people against the incumbent government," he adds.  He insists  that by the standards of the region, the country was developing  rapidly and the impression of decline and stagnation is a  deliberately created myth.

"Yes, the political forces that - I use this term - do not like us,  the political forces that oppose us and are hostile to us, managed to  create the impression that the country is not developing, it is  experiencing regression, which had absolutely no connection with  reality," - he emphasizes.  "We have developed faster than the world  economy. There are figures, facts. During my presidency, the average  salary has tripled, the average pension has quadrupled," Sargsyan  said. (According to the statistics committee of Armenia, the salary  has doubled).

To a clarifying question - does he want to say that thousands of men  from villages went to build roads to Russia under the influence of  enemy propaganda - Sargsyan replied negatively:  "No, I say that  these people wanted to live better than our conditions dictated. They  were forced to leave by the desire to live well. And yes, the forces  you mentioned contributed to the formation of this desire to live  better. It's not obvious? You know, Armenia is small country, and  external influence on Armenia is much greater than on comparatively  large countries, "the former president noted.