Press-Service of the Frontier Department of the
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in Armenia has disseminated
a statement, wherein it expresses regret over the latest incident with
representatives of the Heritage opposition party.
On 25 September, Russian frontier guards wearing
uniform of FSS officers detained and searched the cars of the Heritage Party
representatives while they traveled to Meghri to organize election campaign in
the single-mandate constituency No.38 in Syunik region.
According to the statement by Heritage Party, FSS
officers detained and searched the cars of the Heritage Party representatives
without any legal substantiation. The party said that FSS officers behaved very
crudely and even seized and broke the camera from a member of the Party's
Campaign Headquarters.
The Frontier Department says in the statement that
Zaruhi Postanjyan from Heritage Party together with a group of persons was in
Syunik region at the time when the officers of the Frontier Department jointly
with the Armenian law-enforcers were conducting operational search of persons
suspected in a crime. The Russian party
says that the persons accompanying Zaruhi Poastanjyan acted in a provocative
manner and demonstratively recorded the frontier guards. The press-service of
the Frontier Department refutes the reports on the broken camera of the
Heritage Party representatives. Further
in the statement, the Frontier Department says that the group of people
accompanying Postanjyan created obstacles to the border patrol unit fulfilling
their duties, which, in turn, could impede search and detention of dangerous
criminals. The Frontier Department of the RF FSS in Armenia expresses regret
over the incident and stresses the necessity of observing the rules of the
frontier regime. To recall, the RF FSS
Frontier Department guards and patrols the state border of Armenia with Turkey
and Iran.