Petr Tolstoy, Deputy Chairman  of the Russian State Duma, has warned about the risks of distancing Armenia from Russia.

"2,500 NGOs from the American embassy [in Armenia], the largest [diplomatic] mission of the US in the territory of the former USSR, grants, money, and instill in Armenian youth, Armenian society that Armenia can live without Russia," Tolstoy said at the opening of the first Russia-Armenia public forum, talking about the possible results of distancing Armenia from Russia, reports RIA Novosti.

The Russian parliamentarian called on Armenia not to repeat the mistakes of the other post-Soviet countries which tried to get everything they could get from Russia, and at the same time, to get it all from Europe.

"When the last war was going on in Karabakh [in 2020], literally every week there were lawmakers of the Armenian parliament in my office who were saying: ‘Please call, say, do something, tell the Russian president, stop the war! Our boys are dying, [they are being] brought from the front in coffins.’ But today these lawmakers are no longer there, no one at all! Let me remind that at that time it was [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who stopped the bloody war," said the vice-speaker of the Russian State Duma.