Armenia's refusal to accredit a number of Russian observers to the parliamentary elections in Armenia causes deep regret and bewilderment. Moscow will take this into account in its relations with Yerevan, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated at Thursday’s press briefing.

"Armenia has unofficially informed about the undesirability of including a number of Russian citizens in the lists of the observation mission for the June elections in the republic. The lists of Russian observers were sent in accordance with the established procedure for the accreditation process. Everything was done as the Armenian side demanded. Sadly, the Armenian colleagues have indeed unofficially informed about the undesirability of including a number of Russian citizens in the mission. It is about three MPs of the [Russian] State Duma and one representative of the election commission of the [Russian] Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia,” the Russian MFA spokesperson said.

“The decision to deny accreditation to Russians causes us deep regret and bewilderment,” she noted. “However, apart from all this, apart from regret and bewilderment, we are not ready to accept this logic and will have to take this into account in our future work with Yerevan. It is even impossible to imagine why such unfriendly steps were taken against them. We have no idea what these specific individuals could be guilty of before Armenia.”

Also, the Russian MFA noted that this does not apply to people on any “black lists” or lists of banned persons.

“They have never had a problem visiting Armenia. I know some of them personally. They are wonderful professionals in their field who love and respect Armenia. I could not even imagine what these Russian citizens have done to official Yerevan, to prevent them from entering the country. I can only assume that they are included in the EU sanctions lists, and this is a kind of attitude of official Yerevan to bow down to the EU's ‘senior friends,’ to do a favor," added Zakharova.

The next parliamentary elections in Armenia will be held on June 7. Sixteen parties and two blocs will run in the elections.