Such issues have never been and can’t be raised to any official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, the minister or at any level of Armenian-Russian relations. Armenia has partnering ties with Russia that are hinged on sovereignty and the centuries-old friendship. As far as the content of the statement is concerned, I am authorized to answer questions from journalists and analysts and comment on issues related to Armenia’s foreign policy. I am not authorized to comment on the personal opinion of a journalist.  I have my personal opinion on the journalist’s comment, but I will refrain from talking about it on this platform. This is what Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan said during a Facebook press conference on RFE/RL Armenian Service, responding to a few social network users’ question on the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on the famous comment made by editor-in-chief of Russia Today Margarita Simonyan.

In regard to the fact that Simonyan’s comment was posted on the website of the Collective Security Treaty Organization for a short period and then deleted from the website, Naghdalyan explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had contacted the relevant department of the Organization via Armenia’s representative. The issue was immediately solved, and the Organization explained that there had been a technical mistake.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepts as a basis the CSTO’s explanation and will be consistent to make sure such mistakes are not made in the future,” she said.

One of the social network users asked what actions the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking to protect Armenian exporters of agricultural products from discrimination. In response, Naghdalyan said the following:

“We saw the effective cooperation between the Ministry of Economy of Armenia and the Embassy of Armenia in Russia. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan also touched upon the issue during a session of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, considering the attitude inacceptable and called on his colleagues to examine the issue.”

Naghdalyan assured that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also be consistent to prevent such developments in the future.