Gagik Melkonyan: Batch of Russian weapons already in Armenia

A batch of Russian weapons is already in Armenia. Gagik Melkonyan, a member of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and a member of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security, conveyed this to the RFE/RL Armenian Service.

According to Melkonyan, the aforesaid weapons’ shipment arrived in Armenia recently.

In his words, that batch was transferred to Armenia within the framework of a contract that was signed earlier with Russia.

When asked recently whether Armenia receives the Russian weapons that were ordered, the chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security, Andranik Kocharyan, had said: "Yes, to some share."

"They are giving something. It’s not in the amount that we expect, in terms of the amount of the contract we signed, but they will be regulated in the course of time, I am convinced," Kocharyan had added.

The Ministry of Defense of Armenia, however, neither denied nor confirmed this information in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

After the 44-day war in 2020, several members of the Armenian authorities have complained on a regular basis that Russia, a strategic ally, did not supply the weapons ordered by Armenia although hundreds of millions US dollars were paid for them.