Armenia has sent a protest note to Russia over fresh harsh criticism of its government aired by Russian state television.
Minister of High-Technology Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan revealed the move when he spoke in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday. He said it followed a written alert submitted to his ministry by the National Commission on Television and Radio (HRAH).
The regulatory body alleged a fresh violation of a 2020 Russian-Armenian agreement that allowed Russia’s two main state-run TV channels to retain their slots in Armenia’s national digital package accessible to viewers across the country. The agreement bars them from commenting on domestic Armenian politics and spreading “hate speech.”
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“The Republic of Armenia cannot be tolerant of programs that could call into question the dignity of our people and state,” Hayrapetyan told lawmakers.
Hayarapetian also said on that he has written to Russia’s minister of digital development and mass communication to offer urgent “consultations” on the issue. The agreement on the retransmission of Russian television in Armenia needs to be “amended or edited,” he said.
Yerevan is understood to be unhappy with comments made by Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov, media figure Margarita Simonyan and other speakers during Solovyov’s daily talk show broadcast by the Russia-1 channel on February 25. They said that Armenian leaders should be mindful of what they called disastrous consequences of Western intervention in other ex-Soviet states.
Solovyov also suggested that “there would have been no problems with Armenia” now had Russia fully occupied Georgia in 2008 and gained a “land border” with its South Caucasus ally.
“There would have been no border with both Georgia and Armenia, which is what should happen,” Simonyan said for her part.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry already summoned the Russian ambassador in Yerevan last October to condemn the other Russian broadcaster, Channel One, for disparaging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during an hour-long program. The Armenian charge d’affaires in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry the following day. Ministry officials condemned what they called anti-Russian propaganda spread by Armenia’s government-controlled media.
In the last few years, Armenian Public Television has regularly interviewed and invited politicians and commentators highly critical of Moscow to its political talk shows. Their appearances in prime-time programs of the TV channel run by Pashinyan’s loyalists have become even more frequent over the past year amid a further deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations.
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
