Moscow was perplexed by the information about the ban for Konstantin Zatulin and Margarita Simonyan to enter Armenia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"As for their motivation, I mean those who banned Konstantin Zatulin and, incidentally, Margarita Simonyan from entering Armenia according to her own statement, with this please to the relevant country. We were perplexed by such statements or reports. Let me remind you that we are talking about the deputy of the Russian State Duma and the editor-in-chief of the Russian media. We immediately applied to the Armenian side through diplomatic channels for official confirmation and explanation. We proceed from the premise that this kind of information, if confirmed, is difficult to qualify as a friendly step consistent with the allied nature of our relations. When we receive an official response from Yerevan, then we will decide our further actions, reactions and so on," Zakharova said, recalling that both Zatulin and Simonyan advocate all-round strengthening of Armenian-Russian allied ties, contacts between people. "I don't think there should be any doubt here. I have not heard any statements of a different nature from them. I would not like to see any artificial reasons in the current situation when the West intentionally tries to rock the situation in South Caucasus and to drive a wedge into the relations between Moscow and Yerevan," Zakharova said.