Authorities in Yerevan bar Russian lawmaker from visiting Armenia

YEREVAN, October 26, /ARKA/. Konstantin Zatulin, the deputy chairman of a Russian State Duma committee on relations with former Soviet republics and Eurasian integration said the decision of Armenian authorities to ban him from entering the country was ‘symptomatic.’

The news was first announced by “Haykakan Zhamanak,” an Armenian daily belonging to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s family.

According to it, the pro-Armenian Russian parliamentarian was banned from entering the country over his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.

Zatulin, who described the ban as ‘insulting’, said he was notified about it by a letter from a senior Armenian parliament staffer.

"It [the decision] itself is symptomatic and shows the new course of the Armenian authorities. Of course, I have many friends in Armenia, but the masks are definitely off. Yet my personal attitude towards Armenians and Armenia has not changed. In this situation, one could easily find real spoilers within the country - there are plenty of them, but not the State Duma deputies and me in particular," Zatulin said in his Telegram channel.

Konstantin Zatulin said the Russian Foreign Ministry is going to send a request to the Armenian Foreign Ministry to clarify the situation

"This is the first such case in Russian-Armenian relations against a representative of A Russian MP," Zatulin stressed.

He told Russian daily ‘Vedomosti’ that he does not know which of his remarks could have caused such a reaction of the Armenian authorities.

Zatulin said he was "concerned about the policy" of the Armenian government, which, in his view, is "aligned with the interests of the West.

"Haykakan Zhamanak" explained Zatulin's ban on entering Armenia by his public interviews in which he repeatedly accused the authorities of the Republic of Armenia of the defeat in the 44-day war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in 2020 autumn. - 0-