Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, believes that the recent situation in Armenia was somewhat reminiscent of the Ukrainian Euromaidan in 2014.

Bastrykin noted the abovementioned to Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily of Russia.

“Numerous observers point to the suspicious peculiarities that were not inherent to the protest actions that had taken place before in Armenia,” he stated. “For example, there were masked men among the crowd, [and] who had explicitly called for regime change.”

“In addition, there were people with European Union flags, [and] who had to show to the people the road to a bright future,” added the Russian official. “This attests to the previously planned and provocative nature of the [protest] actions.”

Head of the Russian Investigative Committee was particularly bothered by the fact that the US Embassy in Armenia had immediately reacted to these demonstrations, and issued a respective statement. Alexander Bastrykin expressed his skepticism particularly in regard to why the US embassy had demanded from the sovereign authorities of Armenia to thoroughly investigate the incident.

“[But] this crisis in Armenia did not turn into an armed conflict [like in Ukraine] because the [Armenian] leadership, which had learned lessons from the bitter experience of the [Nagorno-]Karabakh conflict, drew the right conclusions, and did not let the masses (…) rise in the country,” concluded the Russian official.