Sergei Mironov's detention in Yerevan must not be left without response

The arrest of a Russian citizen Sergei Mironov at the Yerevan airport, allegedly at the request of Interpol must not be left without response from Russia, Russian political scientists Andrei Yepifantsev and Oleg Kuznetsov said, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza.

The US said that it had nothing to do with the actions of the Armenian special services, and there is no Sergey Mironov in the Interpol database.

According to the political analyst Andrei Yepifantsev, this political (not a legal) act of Yerevan is directed against Russia. "In my opinion, this is a response to the detention of the Russian citizen of Armenian origin, Marat Galustjan, in Baku. There is a large anti-Russian media campaign in Armenia. In particular, in Yerevan they believe that Moscow does not make any efforts to secure his release, because he is Armenian: "if Ivanov is arrested, Russia would try to release him, but if it is Galustyan, then nobody cares," which is untrue, of course. Armenia shows its dissatisfaction with Russia by detaining Sergei Mironov," he explained.

The expert stressed that this situation cannot be tolerated in Russia. "Otherwise, our citizens will be detained in all the countries for any reason. I think we need to apply the principle identical response here; for example, Russia can start extraditing Armenian citizens to Azerbaijan, which were put on the wanted list and detained on the Russian territory. For sure, Azerbaijan has requested to extradite some Armenian citizens," Andrei Yepifantsev suggested.

"I wonder what the pro-Armenian lobby, which protects the interests of Armenia in the Russian media and the political arena, will say now. I recall two fundamental points of these people: a) to blame the US, b) Armenia is a strategic and most loyal partner of Russia. And now it turns out that our strategic partner detains Russian citizens at the request of the country, which is to blame," the expert said.

The historian and political adviser Oleg Kuznetsov, in turn, drew attention to ambiguities in the arrest of Sergei Mironov. The Armenian side has not yet given no official data on his arrest. "It is not that easy to detain a person when he crosses a state border, it requires a large amount of operative information and haveing that person in the State Border Guard database. It requires investigative work or the work of Armenia's special services, or its law enforcement agencies," he noted.

Whatever it was, according to Oleg Kuznetsov, Russia must protect its citizen. "A state's duty is to protect the rights and legitimate interests of its citizens outside of the country, in foreign land, especially if they have been subjected to any judicial or administrative repression. Now we need to understand whether the claim put forward by the authorities of the country to Mironov is justified and legitimate. Initially it was said that he was detained in Yerevan at the request of Interpol, but then the US law enforcement agencies declined this information. Whatever the case, we need to wait for any charges, then we will see whether this detention is, legal or political," the expert concluded.