Past daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: At the first session of the newly elected parliament, Ruben Rubinyan, who was nominated as a candidate for NA [i.e. National Assembly] president, was calling on the opposition to “start from a clean slate,” to move on to more constructive work, to make the parliament a platform for sharp but civilized debates, etc.

Moreover, in those days, strange as it may seem in the case of the CC [i.e. Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract Party and its parliamentary faction], many of the CC members had begun to use the terms “civilization”, “politeness” and “good manners.”

Of course, they themselves were immediately violating all these concepts, especially some of them was doing it more intensively; moreover, they were constantly provoking. Nevertheless, amid the very sharp but truly civilized behavior of the opposition factions, in general, there was hope that red lines would not be crossed. That was... until [PM] Nikol Pashinyan’s first “appearance” in the new parliament.

He, as always, crossed all the red lines, allowed offensive expressions, etc., but Ruben Rubinyan, a “supporter of civilized debates” who never misses an opportunity to reprimand the oppositionists even for the lightest, mildest characterizations, did not even raise his voice in the case of the “boss.”

Moreover, in a conversation with reporters, he justified himself [by saying] that “he did not directly offend anyone; no one was insulted in a targeted manner.” Well, if a person thinks that the word “vile” is not an insult but “like a scoundrel” is an insult, it is difficult to expect anything else. Well, the CC members sitting in the [NA] presidium were not going interrupt or reprimand their leader. You can imagine, right, what would have happened to them [if they had done so].