The Russian embassy in Armenia has responded to the urgings of the Russian Armenians who are at the Bagratashen border checkpoint since July 30, so that they could be transported to Russia by buses via Georgia. Artur Aynazyan, one of these Armenians at Bagratashen, said this in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"After our issue was raised by the media, they [the Russian embassy] contacted us. They asked us for the passport data, the number, how many of us there were, as well as the details of the bus that is to take us [to Russia]. We will pay for our transfer, the embassy just needs to reach an agreement with Georgia so that we can cross the border [into Georgia]. Now we are waiting, we do not know when it will happen. They will take us until Vladikavkaz; that is, they will have us cross the border [into Russia] and after that, each of us will go to our houses," Aynazyan said.

To note, these Russian Armenians could not cross the border [into Georgia] due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before going to Bagratashen they had staged demonstrations in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan to pay attention to their problem and it would be possible to transfer them to Russia, but there was no response from the embassy, and therefore they had taken this step.

At the moment, according to Artur Aynazyan, there are 81 such people at Bagratashen who are waiting for the chance to return to Russia. Aynazyan added that the cost of the previous such group’s transfer from Armenia to Russia was covered by the embassy.

Those in Bagratashen have long been registered to fly from Armenia to Russia, but their turn has not come, and that is why they had resorted to this step.