In an interview with Sputnik Armenia, President of the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abrahamyan called for harsh reaction to the attacks on and discrimination against Armenians in Moscow.

“As you know, this has been going on for over a week now. People have felt that they can’t be punished for their statements and actions. Now there are massive clashes. The situation is under the control of the President’s administration, and Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov have held meetings with the Armenians in Moscow,” Abrahamyan said.

Abrahamyan added that there wasn’t such aggression even during the Armenian-Azerbaijani military conflict in the 1990s and that this conflict is being provoked through aggressive and irresponsible statements and videos posted on the Internet.

In this regard, Abrahamyan says the Armenians’ stance is clear – the provocations and the violation of the rights of others are inadmissible, and this concerns the restriction on the rights of ethnic Armenians living in Russia.

“The authorities need to strictly respond to such attempts of destabilization. In reality, we Armenians want three things, including stabilization, development of legal mechanisms to prevent the repetition of such a situation in the future and punishment for those who are guilty,” Abrahamyan said, adding that the Union of Armenians of Russia has gathered young Armenians and intelligentsia to explain to them that the issue must be solved peacefully.