According to Khachatur Baghdasaryan, head of Nerkin Hand village in Armenia’s Syunik Province, on Sunday they observed the Russian border guards deployed in the area collecting their field cables. The community leader assumed that this was probably in order to pull out, reported the RFE/RL Armenian Service.
Monday afternoon, the RFE/RL Armenian Service video camera recorded, at the beginning of Nerkin Hand, that there are several Russian soldiers at the Russian checkpoint, who are no longer monitoring the from the adjacent observation post. Also, there were bundled cables near the entrance to the checkpoint.
Russian border guards were stationed in these areas after the 44-day war in the fall of 2020—and at the initiative of the Armenian government.
A few days ago, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, had announced that the pulling out of the Russian military and border guards from a number of provinces of Armenia was agreed upon during the meeting between the leaders of the two countries in Moscow on May 8.
According to the Russian side, however, "at the request of Yerevan, the Russian border guards will continue to stay at the Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Iranian border."
