On October 15, the interview of Konstantin Zatulin, the chairman of the CIS Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, was broadcast on the "Yerkir Media" TV station. It seems that there is something special in the fact that Zatulin, who has a "pro-Armenian position," is giving an interview. Basically no. However, his thoughts are remarkable, which caused him to be recognized as an unwanted person in Armenia.
In the first part of the interview, Zatulin resorted to blackmail, stating that RA wants to make friends with everyone but must understand that Russian peacekeepers are in Nagorno Karabakh. According to his logic, a balanced policy with all parties is impossible; Armenia must forcefully make "friendship" with the state that has a presence "on the ground" in the region.
Being more Catholic than the Pope, he laments that in RA, they expect in vain that the Russian Federation should be involved in military operations with Azerbaijan; it will do so only when there is a "real danger," and Azerbaijan is "only a few kilometers invaded the territory of the Republic of Armenia. The Russian official probably looks at these problems from an imperial position, observing the Armenian-Russian relations through a subordinate-superior prism. Zatulin forgets that RA does not have the enormous territorial depth of Russia, and the Azerbaijani troops did not invade RA territory "a few kilometers" but reached a distance of 8.5 km from Jermuk.
Zatulin stated that Armenia refuses to fight for Nagorno-Karabakh, putting the responsibility on Russia. It is hard not to see intent under this sentence. It is unlikely that Zatulin has forgotten that since the 1990s, the Russian Federation has constantly tried to include in the negotiation process the provision for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh, as, let's say, the "Lavrov plan." This record by Zatulin raises the opposite question: in that case, what are the Russian peacekeepers for if they are not supposed to do what they are called to do in case of threats to the local population? As a sign of Russia's sympathy, Zatulin pointed out that this year 2 billion dollars entered RA from his country. This is aimed at an audience with low literacy. A person with minimal literacy understands that this money was brought to Armenia by the relocators fleeing the war and moving to Armenia.
Nevertheless, the most exciting part of Zatulin's interview is about the "corridor." Here he tries to put the internal political arrangement of Armenia, the presence of Russia in demand for the corridor, and the regional developments in one basket, first to show that the Russian Federation does not put pressure on Armenia in this matter. He connects the need for Nikol Pashinyan's departure with the problem of the corridor. . The deputy of the State Duma stated that Nikol Pashinyan signed the November 9 agreement. Therefore he agreed to provide a gallery. And so, if RA citizens in 2021 re-elected Nikol Pashinyan's political force in the elections, they must put up with the corridor provision. If Russia is not an interested party in the corridor issue, why is Zatulin trying to deny it with angry panic? Finally, why does Zatulin forget the wording of the Russian President that he wrote the text of the November 9 statement?
As it was supposed, the news of recognizing K. Zatulin as an undesirable person in RA found a mixed reaction in the inner Armenian domain. One part, in particular, points out that Zatulin is a pro-Armenian figure, and the other step is a blow to Armenian-Russian relations. However, the question arises: is pro-Armenianism manifested by meddling in RA's internal problems, consciously distorting the facts, sometimes disguised and sometimes with apparent blackmail? Armenian-Russian relations suffer from the presence of "pro-Armenian" figures like Zatulin, who views these relations as the heritage of meaning of the historical past, unable to get rid of the temptation to place these relations in the framework of subject and ruler.
