YEREVAN. – I am the head of the Armenian-Russian Parliamentary Friendship group. Yesterday I had a conversation with my colleague, Deputy Speaker [Yury] Vorobyov of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation; we have not discussed any such issue. Alen Simonyan, National Assembly (NA) of Armenia Vice President and member of the majority My Step faction in parliament, on Thursday said this speaking to reporters at the NA, when asked whether there were any concerns from European organizations, taking into account that the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) speaks about political persecution in the country, and raising it before the European organizations.

"Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, [Sergey] Kopirkin, expressed a wish to meet with me; the meeting has not taken place yet. I have no reaction in terms of the rest of the colleagues.

In the case when the matter is about a criminal case, I don't think our colleagues, serious colleagues who know what a criminal case and politics are, and also know our way of working will hurry and make some heated statements like our PAP colleagues, no matter how much it is proposed and provoked by the logic of ‘bringing a guy’ inside from outside; there is that maturity," Simonyan added.

Russian ambassador meets with opposition Prosperous Armenia Party MPs