What Is Nikol Pashinyan's Office Hiding Under the Guise of State Secret?

While the Russian side was scolding Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over statements regarding the "Iskander" missile system, it turns out that the Prime Minister's office is trying to hide other aspects related to the war under the name of state secret.

First, let's start from the beginning. On the evening of the 23rd, during an interview aired on "First News," Pashinyan addressed accusations made by former President Serzh Sargsyan about the failure to utilize the "Iskander" during the 44-day war. Pashinyan stated that Sargsyan "knows the answers to his questions" and suggested, "Let him ask why the 'Iskander' did not explode, or why it exploded, for instance, at 10% efficiency." This statement has since been commented on at various levels.

“By declaring the incompetence of Russian 'Iskanders,' Pashinyan must, as the saying goes, 'answer for what he said,'” said Vladimir Kovalyov, an engineer-constructor involved in the development of the 'Iskander.' He added that he has witnessed dozens of tests of the complex and recalls no instance where the warhead did not detonate. For such a failure to occur, either the warhead must be removed from the missile or the maintenance must be entrusted to amateurs. We also need to clarify whether amateurs serviced the 'Iskanders' before firing.

Now, let us turn to another interesting aspect. During that interview, there were statements directly responding to former President Serzh Sargsyan. Pashinyan attempts to justify Sargsyan's query about why the 'Iskander' was not used, while carefully concealing another of his inquiries regarding the purchase of bulletproof vests at the price of $600 during the war.

During an interview with "Armnews," Serzh Sargsyan made a scandalous statement discussing “looting and pillaging.” According to him, during the war, the government bypassed the Ministry of Defense to buy bulletproof vests for $600. The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" sent an inquiry to the Armenian government requesting confirmation or denial of Sargsyan's statement.

We received the following response: “In relation to the mentioned inquiries, we inform you that, according to Article 15, Clause 2 of the RA Law on Purchases, purchases of services and goods in that category are included in the plan containing state secret information. According to Article 8, Clause 1, Subclause 1 of the RA Law on Freedom of Information, information containing state secrets is not subject to publication.”

In other words, they are trying to downplay the uproar regarding the purchase of notably overpriced bulletproof vests under the pretext of state secrets and, in essence, hide important information.