Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan does not believe that there had been specific intervention attempts from Russia during the velvet revolution in Armenia; he noted about this in an interview with RBC television.

In connection with The Economist magazine naming Armenia as Country of the year for 2018 and stating in the respective article that, “A Putinesque potentate was ejected, and no one was killed. Russia was given no excuse to interfere,” and when asked whether it turns out that a country needs to meet these two conditions to become the country of the year, Pashinyan responded as follows: “That’s a question addressed to The Economist, not to me. But it’s pleasing to me that Armenia is the country of the year, and I don’t think any country has turned down that status; it’s certainly pleasant.”

And to the query as to whether there had been any attempts to prevent a Russian intervention during last year’s revolution in Armenia, Pashinyan responded: “I don’t think that there had been specific intervention attempts from the Russian Federation. During our first conversations with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, I thanked the Russian Federation for the balanced position during our [Armenia’s] domestic political processes. I believe it’s a fact that the position of the Russian Federation was balanced.”