An Armenian government official ruled out deporting those persecuted for political reasons to Russia.
Armenian security forces have detained repatriates persecuted in Russia for political reasons, but have never deported them and do not intend to do so, the speaker of the Armenian parliament stated.
Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan ruled out the possibility of detaining or deporting citizens persecuted in Russia for political reasons.
"Zero people have been deported from Armenia. If a person does not violate our laws, no criminal case is brought against them.
There have been situations where people were detained, but after clarification of the circumstances, these isolated cases ended with us releasing them," News.Am quoted him as saying.
He emphasized that many people wanted in Armenia, "former political figures accused of violence, murder, and corruption, are now hiding in the Russian Federation."
"I guarantee you that not a single person will be detained or deported to any other, third country for political reasons. I officially guarantee this. We have a lot of people coming here, a lot of artists, a lot of famous people who have been declared foreign agents, and so on. "They have concerts here," the speaker of the Armenian parliament said.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on December 7, 2023, Russian serviceman Dmitry Setrakov was detained in Gyumri. Human rights activists reported that Russian military police detained him for leaving his unit without permission and placed him under arrest on the territory of the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri. On December 19, 2023, it became known that Setrakov had been taken to Russia and was being held in Rostov-on-Don. Human rights activists suggested that he was illegally taken away with the connivance of the Armenian authorities, effectively kidnapped. In an interview with a French television network, the Armenian Prime Minister also described Setrakov's incident as a kidnapping.
Blogger Alexander Lapshin stated that Armenian security forces regularly detain him at the border because he is wanted in Belarus. An Armenian court dismissed Lapshin's petition to stop the detentions.
On September 11, 2017, the President of Azerbaijan pardoned blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years in prison on July 20 of that year for illegally crossing the country's border. After his release, the blogger was hospitalized. According to Azerbaijani authorities, he attempted suicide; Lapshin himself called the incident an attempted murder. On September 14, 2017, blogger flew to Israel.
Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of Russia, Ukraine, and Israel. Lapshin's criminal prosecution in Azerbaijan was launched due to his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a report prepared by the "Caucasian Knot" titled "From Belarus to an Azerbaijani Prison for a Post About Karabakh on Facebook"*.