MOSCOW — Armenia’s demand that Russian border guards are removed from Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport run counter to Armenia’s interests, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed today.
She said Armenia’s official notification that the border guards should withdraw from the airport before August 1, was sent to relevant Russian bodies.
‘We proceed from the fact that all decisions are to made based on the outcome of inter-agency study. Preliminarily, we would like to note that the demand was announced by the Armenian side against the background of a whole series of unfriendly steps and statements by official Yerevan,” Zakharova said.
She noted that this decision does not correspond to Armenia’s national interests, especially taking into account the tasks that have been jointly worked out by Russian and Armenian border guards for many years.
Earlier , Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian Federation had received the official Armenian letter about the termination of the service of Russian border guards at Zvartnots airport. The Kremlin spokesman added that “naturally, contacts at all possible levels will continue.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday that the border troops of the Republic of Armenia have sufficient experience and capabilities to carry out border control at Zvartnots airport without the support of the Russian side.
