Russia "washed its hands like Pontius Pilate" on fate of Vardanyan -  Zatulin

ArmInfo.First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Konstantin Zatulin linked Vardanyan's resignation with pressure from the Azerbaijani side.

 In a conversation with the "Moscow Speaking" radio station,  the Russian  parliamentarian noted that having come to this position, the  entrepreneur " raised  hopes among the suffering population of  Nagorno- Karabakh", which will now be forced to "vote with their  feet", leaving the region.

"Of course, I assess this as a consequence of the pressure exerted,  first of all, by Azerbaijan, not only on Ruben Vardanyan and  Nagorno-Karabakh, but also on the Armenian side in principle, which  did not defend Vardanyan. I am very sorry, because the appearance of  Vardanyan is important not only in itself, but also as it gives hope  to the suffering population of Nagorno-Karabakh that they will not be  abandoned. He raised these hopes, and his resignation, of course,  will harm this and encourage many to vote with their feet, that is,  leave Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving the land of their ancestors. This is  a tragic outcome, not the first in the history of the Armenian  people. I do not want to make claims personally to Vardanyan - he  probably had to weigh all the problems before accepting this post. 

Apparently, he underestimated the degree of pressure on him>, said  theMP.  The Russian side "washed its hands" on the fate of Vardanyan,  added Zatulin. <I would like to note that here you can also apply  your own drop of tar to the Russian Federation, which was endlessly  addressed with demands that we take Ruben Vardanyan to force him to  leave from there. After Vardanyan left Russian citizenship in order  to become a citizen of Armenia, we had an official answer that we had  nothing to do with Vardanyan, his career plans. I believe that in  this case we also gave formal answers and did not want to quarrel  with the Azerbaijani side, we washed our hands like Pontius Pilate.  In the Caucasus, the position of the one who washes his hands in the  future, unfortunately, does not bring benefits to this one who washes  his hands. This did not remove the suspicions of the Azerbaijani and  Turkish sides, they continued to insist on this and even linked the  recent opening of the Lachin corridor with whether Vardanyan would  leave his post. This requirement was in fact such a semi-official  character. I think that now, after all that has happened, we can find  out whether this is really the case, whether the Lachin corridor will  open, whether the so-called ecologists of Azerbaijan, who, of course,  are not ecologists of any kind, and controlled from Baku>," he noted.  

Earlier today, Ruben Vardanyan was dismissed from the post of NKR  State Minister. As ArmInfo wrote earlier, Varadanyan's resignation  was the demand of Azerbaijan and Turkey. It is noteworthy that back  in December of last year, the information sources attached to the  Artsakh president reported that the relations between the NKR leader  Arayik Harutyunyan and Ruben Vardanyan have become tense.