Frants Klintsevich, a former senior Russian parliamentarian, and Karen Igitian, an ethnic Armenian academic, were denied entry to the country at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport on June 28 and July 5 respectively. Igitian has lived in Armenia for the past 16 years.
“We consider the entry ban for Russian citizens as an unfriendly step that contradicts the allied nature of Russian-Armenian cooperation,” Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters. “We have repeatedly called on our Armenian partners to stop this vicious practice.”
Zakharova said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the matter with Armenian officials when he visited Yerevan in May.
“Concrete steps were proposed to the Armenian side. We are waiting for Yerevan's reaction,” added the official.
Yerevan’s blacklist includes several prominent Russians of Armenian descent, notably RT television network chief Margarita Simonyan, as well as pro-Armenian lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin. Armenian officials have accused them of disrespecting the South Caucasus country’s leaders.
Several Armenian Diaspora activists from Europe were also denied entry to Armenia in 2022 and 2023. They all are affiliated local chapters of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a major opposition party challenging Pashinian. Mourad Papazian, the Dashnaktsutyun leader in France, claimed earlier this year that his entry ban was lifted last year thanks to intervention from French President Emmanuel Macron.
Russian-Armenian tensions were reignited late last month by Pashinian’s ongoing campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church that led to the arrests of two archbishops and Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian. Lavrov criticized the “unjustified attacks” on the church on June 30. His Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan responded by accusing Moscow of meddling in Armenia’s internal affairs.
Last week, the Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, to again protest against “hostile” statements by Russian lawmakers and media. The Armenian ambassador in Moscow, Gurgen Arsenian, was in turn summoned to a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin on Monday. Galuzin was reported to stress the “need to maintain a constructive information background around Russia and bilateral relations in Armenia.”