Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, in one of his interviews, has said that the protests against the electricity price hike in Armenia are supported by the West and has noted, “Recently, a situation has been created in Armenia, which somehow was similar to the events in Maidan in early 2014”. As a proof, he mentioned that the EU flags were raised during the protests and the US Embassy to Armenia has issued a statement condemning the violence. This statements made by the Russian official were considered fiddlesticks by the member of “No to Plunder” initiative, Maxim Sargsyan.
In the interview with Aravot.am, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, Ashot Melikyan, noted that the Russians are in their role and this official has made conclusions appropriate to Russian propaganda. Then, he reminded the comments made by Russian mass media on the days of the protests and detailed, “They diligently sought to make these protests a Maidan and they made the first coverage accordingly until the protesters themselves turned all of it into a laughter and showed that first of all social issues are raised.” According to Ashot Melikyan, the entire Russian ruling elite tries to see the hand of the West in every protest action, which is a part of their campaign, while they were obligated to be impartial and also ask what people in Armenia think of this.
To our question of how to interpret the silence of the Russian Embassy to Armenia, Ashot Melikyan responded, “Their silence was due to the fact that the Russian company’s fault in this electricity price hike is great, if not to say, decisive. They just had nothing to say here. Even if they had voiced about the violence against the journalists, a question would be raised among people about how everything started.” Ashot Melikyan once again reminded, “Everything started with the fact that the Russian company and its protégé wanted to accumulate billions at the expense of the Armenian citizens.”
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To the question of whether we can say that a new Russia propaganda wave has been launched with a comparison of Maidan, Mr. Melikyan replied, “The Russian Investigative Committee Chairman’s statements regarding the Maidan comparisons come more from outside, and I have not heard anything like this from any serious person inside Armenia. It is an attempt of devaluation of our protests, because when you raise a question to solve social problems, but a political shade is given from outside, immediately a new argument appears in the hands of the authorities here, they say, look, your protest is interpreted in the following way. The Armenian mass media should resist this propaganda. They are able to prove their audience inside Armenia and inform what the meaning of this protest is.”
Ashot Melikyan believes that making publications from the international media on these subjects that do not meet the reality, the Armenian media should consider their duty to put everything into their placed and present the reality with relevant comments.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
