Residents of Yerevan held protests near the Russian Embassy in Yerevan to express outrage over the conditions of detention of Gracha Arutyunyan, a driver suspected of killing 18 people at Podolsk (Russia). The suspect entered the court hall wearing a woman’s bathrobe. The protesters in Yerevan offered Russian Ambassador Ivan Volynsky to put on a similar bathrobe and leave the country.
Andrey Areshev, a scientist of the Institute for Political and Social Research of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea Region, emphasized that any event related to Russia was a matter of negative public attention. The car accident caused by Arutyunyan demonstrates that any information can be given in a negative tone. Protests at the Russian embassy cannot leave people without surprise, Areshev goes on.
The expert believes that authorities should calm the people down, although someone needs the situation to escalate. Both sides need to overcome the negative trend. Areshev notes that people in Armenia who assume that a quarrel with Russia and a rapprochement with Georgia would benefit Armenia are wrong.
Armenia is aware that such meetings are attended by the very same people. Indifference of Armenian authorities to the problem seems strange, the scientist says.
Tigran Minasyan, a post-graduate of the History Faculty of Neighbouring States of the MSU named after M.V. Lomonosov, emphasized that Armenian ombudsmen were outraged by treatment of the driver suspected of the accident.
