“I am more inclined to believe that the Russians simply did their job, according to their style, without warning anyone”, said political technologist Karen Kocharyan at a press conference referring to the incident in Panik village. According to him, we should be satisfied with the fact that the leadership of the military base asked for an apology.
“Now it is not appropriate to make scandals in Armenian-Russian or Armenian-Iranian relations. The incident is a result of working style which does not change”. Karen Kocharyan believes there is no political context in the Panik incident: “I do not say that everything is fine in the Armenian-Russian relations, but what the Russian press was publishing before Pashinyan’s visit to Moscow, and after that, are different. The same press stopped giving negative assessments after the visit. Though those have been activated recently, and the reason is not Pashinyan-pro-Western relations”.
As for the influence of Russia and the West in the negotiation process on the Karabakh conflict, Karen Kocharyan noted: “It is expected that negotiations will resume. The OSCE Minsk Group should make a “restart” because there is a new player, Nikol Pashinyan”.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
