Head of Rossotrudnichestvo Yevgeny Primakov said on Thursday that pro-Russian blogger Badalyan has gone missing in Armenia. At the same time, Sputnik Armenia reported that the blogger was detained in the town of Goris together with the agency's columnist Ashot Gevorkyan at the Investigative Committee. The reason for the detention has not been reported yet.
"I don't rule out that this is another provocation related to the Russia-Armenia media forum in Yerevan. It could be a provocation organized by those who are hell-bent on spoiling the bilateral relations between the two counties, which is heavily funded by the West," the spokeswoman stressed.
"Obviously, the forces which strive to spoil the bilateral relations have recently intensified their activities. I refuse to accept that the government, which came under the slogan 'freedom of speech is everyone's absolute right,' will order persecution of journalists and block the dissemination of information," Zakharova emphasized.
The official referred to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that "the right to expression of opinion is seriously protected in Armenia."