Zakharova accused Yerevan of "bending over to the EU" due to its lack of trust in Russian observers.

Yerevan did not want to see Russian citizens on the CIS observation mission for the parliamentary elections in Armenia. Moscow will take this "anti-Russian course" into account in its future work with Yerevan, the official spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

Russia planned to send three State Duma deputies and a representative of the Karachay-Cherkessia election commission to Armenia to observe the parliamentary elections as part of a CIS mission, but their Armenian partners "informally notified" the organization that it was undesirable to include Russians in the mission.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated at a briefing on May 28 that "observers from Russia are being denied permission to observe the elections." According to Zakharova, Yerevan has not provided an official response to the request on this matter and has not explained the reasons for this position.

"We have no idea what these specific individuals might have done wrong to Armenia. We know that there are a number of individuals who are on some kind of blacklists, stoplists—no, these are not those people. They have never had any problems visiting Armenia," she stated.

At the same time, Zakharova acknowledged that Russian candidates for CIS observers "are on the European Union's sanctions list."

“And this is a kind of bowing posture by official Yerevan before its EU elders (...) If this is true, then it turns out that the Armenian side is once again demonstrating, in the direction of Russia, that it is choosing the anti-Russian course of the EU, Brussels, and the West. How then can we expect assurances of friendship and continued cooperation?” she stated.

Expressing “deep regret and incomprehension” on behalf of the Russian side, Zakharova warned that Moscow “is not ready to accept this logic.” “We will be forced to take it into account in our future work with Yerevan,” she added.

The “Caucasian Knot” reported that at a meeting with Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin on April 1, Vladimir Putin warned the Armenian Prime Minister that combining a course toward rapprochement with the EU and membership in the Eurasian Economic Union is “impossible by definition,” he stated. He also stated that Moscow would like to see all pro-Russian political forces allowed to participate in the parliamentary elections in Armenia.

The first Armenia-EU summit, which took place in Yerevan on May 4-5, gave Moscow media a reason to accuse Nikol Pashinyan of "betrayal" and an anti-Russian course. Russian officials also echoed similar rhetoric: Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, in his Telegram channel, called the summit participants, including Pashinyan, "brainless Russophobes."