Several Russian media outlets today covered the case of Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. “Exactly eight months ago, on 28 July 2018, former President of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharyan was arrested in Armenia. Right from the start, his custody and the charges related to overthrow of constitutional order led one to think that Nikol Pashinyan, who came to power in Yerevan, was literally taking revenge. After all, Pashinyan was an active participant of the disturbances that Kocharyan suspended through rather brutal methods. Over time, the doubts were confirmed with facts”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda particularly writes.

“The recordings of the conversations of Pashinyan and the Director of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, as well as the conversations of other heads of special services were posted on YouTube. Right after the wiretaps, Pashinyan ordered to detain Robert Kocharyan no matter what. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, as well as foreign and Armenian human rights activists issued special statements right after the detention of the former president, but Yerevan didn’t pay any attention to that. By Pashinyan’s will, Armenian law-enforcement authorities committed a number of violations. For instance, they “spit” on the constitutional norm related to the immunity of the President,” write the authors, stating that “Robert Kocharyan meets the major requirements of PACE Resolution 1990 to be recognized as a political prisoner. He was taken under custody by violation of the guarantees provided for by the European Convention on Human Rights. He is being kept under custody for political reasons, regardless of a specific violation of law. After all, he was remanded as a result of an overtly unjust verdict. “Democrat” Pashinyan has his own political prisoner.”

In its turn, the Vesti report on Rosia 24 TV channel states that “political revenge, pressure on the court and direct violation of the Constitution have been mixed together”. Moreover, Pashinyan is referred to as “one of the organizers of the disturbances” that took place on 1 March 2008. The more than 4-hour report provides quite a lot of details about the famous phone wiretaps and states that Kocharyan was detained almost immediately after he announced that he had decided to return to big politics.