Russia Calls 'Unacceptable' Attempts To Incite Enmity With Armenia

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Friday called "unacceptable" attempts to incite enmity between Russia and Armenia.

In a video message on Telegram, Maria Zakharova said "the information space of Armenia has recently been characterized by a distinct tendency to spread one-sided, negative and often simply false messages about Russia."

"We consider unacceptable attempts to incite enmity and hatred between our people by blaming Russia for all the troubles of the Armenian people," she said.

Zakharova condemned the arrest of an observer of the Russian Sputnik news agency in Armenia on Thursday.

"The provocation with the detention of Sputnik Armenia observer Ashot Gevorgyan and blogger Mikael Badalyan in Armenia is aimed at clouding relations between Moscow and Yerevan," she said.

Zakharova pointed out that the Armenian authorities banned entry to the country of a number of Russian political and public figures because of their criticism of the current Yerevan's line, including lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, media-manager Aram Gabrelyanov, and experts Andranik Migranyan and Viktor Krivopuskov.

Zakharova said that the statements of some Russian experts "cannot be compared to the anti-Russian campaign in a number of Armenian media."

Growth of Western media outlets in Armenia

The spokeswoman marked the significant growth of the number of the Western media outlets in Armenia, saying their main goal is Russia's defamation.

Some of them "heap slug" on structures like the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, she said.

According to Zakharova, this propaganda is not just encouraged, but promoted by the West, which finances numerous non-governmental organizations, "experts" and allocates grants.

"Judging by the scale of their broadcast and the quality of their programs, the wide distribution of materials on the sites of various American hosting companies and social networks, they have no shortage of funds," she said.

The spokeswoman said young people were "the main target" of these actions.

"Westerners are hitting on the most acute topics, aiming to shift the vector of public sentiment in the republic to anti-Russian. The future of the region does not bother them at all, the ultimate goal is to create discord between fraternal peoples under the guise of beautiful words, undermine security and stability with only one goal -- to weaken Russia's influence and globally sow chaos in this region," she said.

Zakharova emphasized that the same events were happening in Ukraine before its collision with Russia.

Positive agenda

She said that there is a need to highlight positive aspects of the relations between the two countries.

"I would like to see and hear more about the contribution of Russia, its military, including peacekeepers and border guards, to the security of Armenia and Russian companies -- to the economic growth of the republic," she said.

Russian-Armenian ties have worsened since pro-Western politician Nikol Pashinyan came to power as a result of a coup in 2018.

Pashinyan and his Cabinet blame Russia for Armenia's defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, which lasted 44 days.

Moscow refers to the internationally-recognized status of the Karabakh region as Azerbaijan's territory, meaning no one attacked Armenia and there was no reason to interfere.​​​​​​​ -