Russian Foreign Ministry: Whether Armenia, Azerbaijan discuss Ruben Vardanyan at negotiations is unknown

p

YEREVAN, June 19. /ARKA/. It is unknown whether Armenia and Azerbaijan discuss Ruben Vardanyan at their bilateral negotiations, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference on Wednesday./pp

Ruben Vardanyan, a former Russian oligarch and subsequently the State Minister of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, has been under arrest and kept in a jail in Baku since September 2023. He declared a hunger strike in April 2024, which he eventually ended. Vardanyan’s family recently reported that the politician had been tortured in his cell./pp “I do not know whether the issue of Ruben Vardanyan, who is not an Armenian citizen, is being discussed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I would like to know that but I don’t know,” Zakharova said./pp

Zakharova reiterated that Russia stands for comprehensive Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization in line with trilateral agreements at the highest level in the period from 2020 to 2021. “This process includes, among other things, the resolution of humanitarian issues, such as the return and exchange of all persons held by the parties, careful treatment of cultural and religious heritage sites, the exchange of information through relevant structures and public organizations in the search for missing citizens,” Zakharova stated./pp

Russian billionaire, investor and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan announced in June 2021 that he had received Armenian citizenship and was going to take on social work./pp

In September 2022, he announced his renunciation of Russian citizenship (this request was granted by the Russian President in December) and moved to Nagorno-Karabakh where he soon became the State Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, leaving this post 3.5 months later in February 2023./pp

Azerbaijan launched a full-scale invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh on 19-20 September 2023 using artillery, UAVs, and aircraft. On 28 September, Samvel Shahramanyan, the leader of the self-proclaimed state, signed a decree that put the republic out of existence starting 1 January 2024./pp

Roughly a week after the invasion, all but a few ethnic Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian government reported registering a total of 115,000 refugees./pp

During the exodus of Armenians, Ruben Vardanyan was arrested by the Azerbaijani authorities and has since then been under arrest./pp br br br br br br br/p