The Russian Embassy in Yerevan has issued a statement over the reactions in Armenia to the developments around the recent deadly road accident near Moscow in which 18 people were killed and scores were injured through an Armenian driver’s fault.
“It is regrettable that the July 13 road accident near the town of Podolsk near Moscow is being used by some to fuel anti-Russian sentiment,” said the Embassy, referring to actions of protests staged near the Embassy and media publications in Armenia condemning the humiliating treatment in Russia of the suspect – 46-year-old citizen of Armenia Hrachya Harutyunyan.
Harutyunyan, whose truck laden with gravel plowed into a passenger bus at a road intersection, causing multiple deaths, was brought to court to be remanded into custody in a colorful woman’s robe, which elicited angry reactions from the man’s family and human rights activists in Armenia. Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan wrote to his Russian counterpart asking him to deal with the situation and ensure that the suspect is treated with dignity.
Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy deplored what it described as ‘orchestrated politicized assessments’, saying that the tragedy had no ethnic dimension.
“We believe that the actions aimed at using the great human tragedy for narrow political purposes and undermining Russian-Armenian relations are quite irrelevant. Orchestrated politicized assessments are inadmissible,” it said. “The tragedy near Podolsk has no ethnic tint. It will be investigated in a comprehensive, careful, impartial way and without emotions.”
OTHER ARTICLES IN NEWS
READERS' COMMENTS