17:18, 22 March 2021

Pashinyan confesses to buying fighters from Russia without ammunition

A Su-30SM fighter. Photo by the press service of the Western Military District https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12206474@egNews

Prior to war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia bought air fighters from Russia, but failed to buy missiles for them, Nikol Pashinyan has admitted, thus confirming the statement by Movses Akopyan, a former employee of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Premier has added that after he came to power, "first of all, the necessary ammunition was purchased for the army," the "News-Armenia" writes.

Back in November 2020, Movses Akopyan, a former head of the MoD's military control service, stated the fact that the Su-30SM fighters, purchased from Russia, were not equipped with ammunition. Then, Armenian authorities failed to confirm this information, the RIA "Novosti" has reported.

Akopyan was suspected of abuse of power after he explained the defeat in Karabakh by army unprofessional management.

The political crisis in Armenia has escalated after in February, Pashinyan had criticized the "Iskander" missile complexes.

On February 25, the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces called on Pashinyan to resign. The latter treated it as a putsch attempt and decreed to dismiss Onik Gasparyan, the Chief of the General Staff. On March 18, the general's advocate said that Gasparyan could remain in office until the court decided to dismiss him.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 22, 2021 at 01:10 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.