The Strong Armenia bloc’s prime ministerial candidate—businessman and philanthropist—Samvel Karapetyan, commented to reporters today on the information that Russian citizens, who also have Armenian citizenship, were arriving in Armenia to vote in the country’s parliamentary elections on the instructions of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia.

“This is stupidity, which they [i.e. the incumbent Armenian authorities] have put on the agenda from the very beginning. How do you imagine it?” Karapetyan said.

The politician also answered a reporter’s question about “how many electoral bribes” he had “distributed.”

“Well, you should have counted,” he countered. “Of course, we did not distribute [them]. If we had distributed [them], they would have arrested me again.”

According to him, today the people of Armenia are speaking their mind.

Karapetyan said that he came to vote in the elections in a good, fighting mood, like the entire Armenian people.

“Today it is clear that everyone is in a fighting mood, and it is very important to ensure real legitimate power so that we finally get the opportunity to decide the future of our country ourselves,” the politician noted.

The candidate for premier noted that he would like Armenia not to experience new upheavals, since each upheaval will again set back the country’s development.

And commenting on the threat of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to hold him accountable for his statements during the election campaign about Armenian authorities’ alleged plans to resettle 300,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia, Samvel Karapetyan stated that he is held accountable “every day,” and even brought to the elections because he could not come on his own—due to his house arrest.