The Media Was More Aggressive: Alen Simonyan's Commentary on Meeting with Lavrov

The Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, gave an interview to the Russian television channel ‘Дождь’. In response to the question regarding Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's dissatisfaction with the criticism directed at Russia from Yerevan and Armenia's rapprochement with the European Union, Simonyan stated, 'I do not consider it serious. It was a working visit, and the conversation took place as I expected. I can say that I actually liked the conversation because there was no aggression, and there were no issues that could not be discussed or that would create situations where one side would feel uncomfortable. So I think everything was normal.'

Regarding the media coverage of the meeting, Simonyan remarked, 'As for the rest, that is, the press and media that covered that meeting, they were much more aggressive and were operating on a completely different level. This did not really surprise me, but it was somewhat strange.' He noted that official channels respond much more rigidly and heavily to what he has said and to what has occurred. However, the atmosphere during the meetings was entirely different.