YEREVAN. – Hovhannes Igityan, a member of the majority My Step faction at the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and a member of the NA delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will participate for the last time in the PACE session that will kick off in Strasbourg, France, on September 30, Zhoghovurd (People) newspaper reported.

“According to our information, Igityan’s positions in the delegation became shaky when, on June 24, the MP did not participate in the Assembly vote on the matter of the restoration of the [PACE] Russian delegation’s voting rights, and rumors spread that he had had an arrangement with the Ukrainian MPs [at PACE] not to take part in the [respective] voting.

“According to Zhoghovurd daily’s information, in recent days the RF [Russian Federation] side has clearly demanded [from Armenia] that Igityan should leave [the Armenian NA delegation to PACE]. They explained [that] because of his unpredictability, they cannot be sure what position he will have in such other situations in the future.

“And after quite long discussions, according to our information, the ruling [political] team [of Armenia] has decided to find a replacement for Igityan. But, according to our sources, they are still in [respective] search,” Zhoghovurd wrote.