Serzh Sargsyan Lies about His Knowledge of Russian Position on Arms Sales to Azerbaijan

On July 16, during the interview for ”R-Evolution” TV program on “Armenia” TV, Serzh Sargsyan addressed the question on Russia’s position related to arms sales to Azerbaijan, saying that he has never heard the positions of Russia’s president or Foreign Minister regarding those deals, and thus cannot comment on them.

“I have never heard the response of the Russian side, at least publicly. And if a Russian politician or an analyst, or any official says something, it does not mean that it is Russian side’s answer. The Russian side can respond through the president, the foreign minister”, Sargsyan said, refusing to comment on Russia’s position.

However, Serzh Sargsyan heard the Russian answer both “publicly” and “from the president” on August 10, 2016, when he was in Moscow on a working visit. After the Sargsyan-Putin meeting, the two officials held a joint press conference. Responding to the question of a journalist from one of Armenian TV channels, Putin expressed his position on arms sales to Azerbaijan.

“In the modern armaments market, every country can practically purchase any weapon, and a country like Azerbaijan, i.e. a country with oil, a country with a population of 10 million, with a rapidly growing economy, with a considerable amount of gold and currency reserves, certainly is able to buy arms anywhere. Do you understand? Anywhere”, Putin said in Sargsyan’s presence.

Serzh Sargsyan himself talked earlier about a discussion he had had with Putin on this issue. In April 2015, in the interview given to Pozner on Russian “First Channel”, Sargsyan stated that he has repeatedly spoken to his Russian counterpart about Russian arms sales to Azerbaijan.

“We have talked on this issue multiple times with Vladimir Vladimirovich. We could not help talking about it”, Sargsyan had said. 

Thus, it results that Sargsyan has lied about the “most painful issue in Russian-Armenian relations”.