Legislature head on foreigner’s abduction in Armenia by Russians: Our MFA must respond

I consider it inadmissible and unacceptable. Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, told this to reporters in the NA Friday—and referring to the fact that recently the military police of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, Armenia had arrested a foreign citizen in sovereign Armenia and transferred him to Russia.

"I think our MFA [i.e. the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] should show an appropriate response because this is inadmissible," added Simonyan.

To note, human rights advocate Artur Sakunts had informed that the military police officers of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri had arrested Russian citizen Dmitry Setrakov, who had taken refuge in Gyumri. According to Sakunts, Setrakov was a contract soldier in Russia. But after military operations, he refused to serve and moved to Armenia. He was arrested and transferred to the aforesaid Russian military base in Gyumri, and a criminal case was opened against him on the grounds of deserting his military unit.

In turn, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia had stated that it did not receive, discuss, and granted a petition to detain, arrest, and hand over Setrakov to the respective authorities of Russia. It added that it does not have information regarding the search for Dmitry Setrakov by the relevant authorities of Russia, as well as his detection in Armenia.

Later it became known that Dmitry Setrakov was transferred to Russia.