On 24 February, several members of the Russian State Duma expressed their discontent with the statements of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan regarding the usage of Iskander ballistic missiles during the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

In a televised interview Pashinyan responded to the statements made by Armenia former President Serzh Sargsyan (Caucasus Watch reported) when he said that he was surprised that the missiles were not used on the 3rd or 4th day of the war. “Maybe it is addressed to me, but I think the “rejected” Sargsyan should know answers to numerous questions and not give questions the answers to which he knows. So, maybe they will answer why the used Iskander did not explode or exploded by 10% for example,” Pashinyan said.

Several members of Russia’s parliament criticised Pashinyan for making such statements. “When a person seeks to be innocent, he will tie it with Iskander, will say the Armenian people are guilty, the militaries are guilty. But of course, it does not correspond to reality. Our Iskanders are… precision weapons, they appeared on several occasions in different drills. It is an absolute lie [Pashinyan’s words] and is beyond any doubt. No wonder the West often tells us to bring these short-range missiles to the process of negotiations. In Syria they were used accurately and repeatedly. To put it mildly, I will not agree with this opinion of Mr Pashinyan,” said the deputy chairman of the Defence Committee of Russian State Duma Viktor Zavarzin.

“Undoubtedly, Pashinyan needs to find guilt in what happened. But after such statements it is necessary to immediately set up a bilateral commission for Armenia as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). It actually can be a major blow to the reputation of our weapon and the image of the whole country. And it is necessary to be held accountable for such words if they are wrong,” stated the first deputy chairman of the Russian Duma Defence Committee Alexander Sherin. He added that it is necessary to first of all learn “whether Pashinyan read at all the tactical-technical characteristics of Iskander and whether he knows for what this missile is being used for,” “how can it be calculated that 10 Iskanders were used and only one exploded? And where did the other 9 fall and did not explode? I think Pashinyan should publicly apologise. But he blurted it out to the whole world. Pashinyan’s phrase shows how deep he actually dived into the military affairs,” he emphasised. 

“A bad workman quarrels with his tools. This saying describes the best the words of the Armenian prime minister about usage of Iskander in the recent war and their being “outdated.” People who are well aware of the issues of war and peace know that this is a 21st century weapon, the best and universal operative-tactical missile complex. Iskander proved its high efficiency during the war against terrorism in Syria,” said the State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin. “[George] Soros methodologists have let Pashinyan down. But it is not only about his incompetence. This is another indication of how the street under the noisy beautiful slogans prepared with foreign and hostile scenarios brings the person who ruins the country to power. Not only the citizens of Armenia could have learnt it,” he added. 

Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov considered Pashinyan made such statements for political reasons. “Three and half months have passed since the end of the war in Nagorno Karabakh and during all this time no one was talking about the bad quality of Russian types of weapons. Why would Pashinyan start talking about it? I see only political reasons here. He is trying to redeem himself in the eyes of western partners for his failure,” he stressed.