Pashinyan's associate calls Kopyrkin not ambassador, but Russian viceregent

A member of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction and a member of the Standing Committee on Defence and Security of the National Assembly of Armenia Gagik Melkonyan has called Sergey Kopyrkin not an ambassador but a Russian viceregent.

"Recently, Russian viceregent in Armenia Kopyrkin was interviewed by this broadcast and brought down on our neck (Armenian authorities - ed.) a number of accusations and said that there are Russian troops here, there are Russian border guards here, 102nd base, and they ensure Armenia's security," Melkonyan said in an interview with Armenian media, Caliber.Az reports.

“Mr. Kopyrkin himself is the viceregent of Russia in Armenia. I consider him exactly the viceregent. He said that Russian troops are in Armenia, they are guarding the borders. And we saw, didn't we, in 2021 and 2022, the Russian troops said that according to our request they were deployed in some places. But have they done anything positive? They ran away from Vayk, knowing that war would start tomorrow, they ran away from there. They ran away from Vardenis, they ran away from the rest of the places they were stationed. At least, they fled from Tegh village and surrendered our strongholds to Azerbaijanis and ran away. That is, they ran away and they themselves say that our authorities are lying. Lying about what? Didn't you run away? We say you ran away!

And Kopyrkin sits so proud on this post of governor and says something like this: "If it wasn't for our troops, Armenia would have been lost. Take your troops and leave, don't think about Armenia," Melkonyan said.