Russian State Broadcaster Head and Duma MP Banned from Entering Armenia
On October 26, Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian State Broadcaster RT, said she had been banned from entering Armenia, along with a senior Russian lawmaker. "Konstantin Zatulin, who has been a fierce supporter of Armenia for many years, has been banned from entering Armenia by the current leader of Armenia," Simonyan wrote on Telegram. "Me too, by the way," she added.
On October 25, Konstantin Zatulin, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration, and Relations with Compatriots, received an email to the official email of a State Duma deputy about the undesirability of his arrival in Armenia.
The letter received said: "On behalf of the leadership of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, we inform you that, unfortunately, your public statements in recent months against the Republic of Armenia are detrimental to the development of friendly and allied relations between our states. In this regard, in the future, your visit to the Republic of Armenia is considered undesirable."
The letter was signed by Tigran Seyranyan, the head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Parliament of Armenia.
"I rate this as an insulting step. It was sudden for us. We were told that my visit was undesirable, and my statements were detrimental to the Republic of Armenia," Zatulin said.
The Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times) newspaper announced the above-mentioned development earlier. According to the Yerevan publication, the editor-in-chief of which is Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Russian parliamentarian is considered an undesirable person in Armenia since he has repeatedly publicly blamed the authorities of the republic for the defeat during the 44-day war in the Karabakh.