The Resolution of Flight Resumption Issues is Presented Exclusively on a Political Level, According to the Russian Embassy in Armenia

The resolution of flight resumption issues is presented exclusively on a political level, allegedly depending on certain "political demands" from the Russian side. It also seems absurd to suggest that Russia is using this situation to escalate internal tension for later "gaining benefits," which is supposedly a manifestation of "imperial policy." This is stated in a post on the Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in Armenia, which comments on a report published by Radio Liberty.

“We could not ignore the material published on September 22 by the Armenian service of Radio Liberty titled 'We want to go to Russia, we can't.' Protest action in front of the government building.” The report addresses issues faced by citizens of Armenia and Russia who have been temporarily residing in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic and how this issue is being used in a dishonest manner to give a politically charged sound to the topic of resuming air communication between our countries through selective re-interpretation of facts.

The resolution of flight resumption issues is presented exclusively on a political level and allegedly depends on certain "political demands" from the Russian side. It also seems absurd to suggest that Russia is using this situation to escalate internal tension for later "gaining benefits," which is supposedly a manifestation of "imperial policy." Given such comments, it is not surprising that only a small excerpt was taken from the operational response provided by the press service of the Russian Embassy in Armenia to Radio Liberty's inquiry, which did not provide a clear understanding of the current situation.

For those genuinely interested in obtaining objective information, below we present the full text of the response from the press service of the Russian Embassy in Armenia to the relevant media's inquiry:

"Regarding your question, we inform you that a decision has been made by the operational headquarters for the prevention of the importation and spread of the new coronavirus infection on resuming international air communication on a reciprocal basis with Kazakhstan (Nur-Sultan), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), and Belarus (Minsk) starting from September 21, 2020, and with South Korea (Seoul) starting from September 27, 2020. Flights to the mentioned countries will be operated on a reciprocal basis once a week.

Additionally, the operational headquarters has decided to suspend the 'special' flight program starting from September 21, 2020, in connection with the gradual restoration of transport communication between states and the possibility for Russian citizens to return to their homeland on regular flights.

As far as we know, decisions regarding the restoration of air communication are made as a result of bilateral negotiations and must take into account objective criteria for assessing the sanitary and epidemiological situation developed by 'Rospotrebnadzor' in specific foreign states, such as the number of infected per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days, the growth rate of new cases over the same period, the reproduction number of the disease over 7 days, as well as the total number of tests conducted is necessarily taken into account. More precise information is probably better obtained from the competent authorities of Armenia, which receive this information in full from their Russian counterparts."