Yerevan September 06
Ani Mshetsyan. I do not think that the issue of criminal prosecution of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan can take a separate place in the agenda of the meeting of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armen Rustamyan, head of the ARF faction “Dashnaktsutyun” stated this on September 6 in a conversation with journalists.
At the same time, he noted that Kocharyan had very warm relations with Putin. Nevertheless, Rustamyan does not share the opinion that Moscow is supporting Kocharyan. According to him, Moscow’s reaction to the processes in Armenia is conditioned by its interests in the region: “Russia has its interests in Armenia and the region, of course, it has no right to interfere in our affairs, but may have concerns about certain processes, say, Yuri Khachaturov, who obviously stands in the way of the image of this organization, because it is difficult to imagine that the NATO secretary general can be put in the dock before he does not withdraw it. “Russia reminds us that, despite the internal situation we should not violate our obligations to the EEA and CSTO, in this situation it is very important whether the post of Secretary General of the CSTO remains for Armenia or not.”
Returning to Kocharyan, Rustamyan noted that if he did not escape from the investigation, and returned to his homeland from abroad, it shows that the second president is confident of his innocence, and can prove it. “By his conduct, Robert Kocharyan proves that he can prove his innocence, but it also speaks about the high level of our system of justice, that is, if you do not believe the court, then there is no sense in returning. In such cases, some officials ask for political asylum in foreign countries, but in our case this did not happen, “Rustamyan said.
Referring to the information about Moscow’s refusal to extradite former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan to Armenian justice, together with Kocharyan and Khachaturov, accused of overthrowing the constitutional order within the framework of the case on March 1, 2008, Rustamyan said that such a situation is indeed a matter of concern. “We need to think in which way it is possible to solve such questions.” If this is true, Russia directly says that the situation around the case on March 1. does not inspire her, to put it mildly, I think the answer to the question of why we will find out after the meeting is Putin -Pashinyan: And I do not rule out that this issue should be discussed, such situations should not negatively affect our diplomatic relations, “the deputy noted.