In 2020, Russia, at least, left Armenia on your own, the speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, told reporters Wednesday.

Regarding a question about the possible deterioration of Armenian-Russian relations in light of the European Political Community summit held in Yerevan, Simonyan responded with a question: should Armenia, while pursuing its own interests, constantly look back to see if Russia was offended? To what extent is this right? “I think it is wrong,” Simonyan stated, adding that when Russia pursues its own interests, it does not care about Armenia’s interests. According to Simonyan, Armenia only ensures its own interests and its security.

"When we [i.e. Armenia] were in a state of war with Azerbaijan in the past, Russia was both selling weapons to Azerbaijan and being in allied relations and saying, 'We are an independent state, and we have our relations with everyone.’ Should Armenia be a serf? Should it be told, 'It will be fine with this, it will not be fine with that?'" Simonyan stated.

Responding to the question about the strengthening of Armenia's economic dependence on Russia, Simonyan stated that he did not want to express himself sharply, but there is a need to understand what “dependence” is. “Either we live on our knees, be it under the heel of Russia, France, or another country, do not hold free elections and do not have free media, or we try to stand up for our small country without wars and hostility, political or other attacks. The problem is not to replace one ‘big brother’ with another, but not to give up our own freedoms, which is a matter of choice,” Simonyan sad.

He reiterated that in the past “we [i.e. Armenia] were on our knees” because the presidential elections were rigged, as evidenced by the congratulations from Moscow. As per Simonyan, Russia was appointing a viceroy in Armenia, the appointment of most leaders was clarified with that country, the entire political conjuncture was agreed upon with them, and Armenia’s ambassadors cooperated with their ambassadors. “Is this political independence? There was no independence before 2018,” Simonyan stated.

“After 2020, taking into account what happened... the [Armenian] people of Nagorno-Karabakh saw that our ally [i.e. Russia], at least, left us on our own,” the Armenian NA speaker said, and repeated the phrase “at least” several times.