YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: Yesterday [PM] Nikol Pashinyan announced that he was canceling his visit to Moscow due to the [COVID-19] pandemic.

However, our sources say that this is more due to the obstacles created by the Kremlin. The Russian side demanded that Nikol Pashinyan take a coronavirus test at the Moscow airport, as they had suspicions about his getting infected [with it recently] and speedy recovery [from it].

The Armenian side offered to send the negative result of Pashinyan's test conducted in Yerevan, but the Russians refused, insisting that they should check the RA Prime Minister on the spot, and if he was really infected and recovered, there should be an antibody in the blood, but if it turns out that Pashinyan was not actually infected with the coronavirus, he would be barred from entering RF [Russian Federation], as Armenia is the most risky country in the region in terms of the indicators of the spread of the coronavirus.