Kremlin propagandist Simyonan says Armenia ‘won’t exist’ without friendly ties with Russia

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-run media outlet RT, said during a panel discussion on Thursday that Armenia ‘most likely won’t exist’ if there are unfriendly relations with Russia.

‘If, god forbid, unfriendly relations are established between Russia and Armenia, it will be very sad for Russia’, Simonyan, who is of Armenian heritage herself, said.

‘But Armenia, most likely it won’t exist at all. That’s the horror’, she added.

The comments were quickly circulated widely throughout both Armenian and Azerbaijani media.

It was the latest episode in the drawn-out process of deteriorating ties between Russia and Armenia, which were once close allies.

Simonyan has gained notoriety for her often vitriolic comments and opinions, particularly about Ukraine, as well as regularly threatening the West with missile or nuclear attacks.

Both Simonyan and her husband, Tigran Keosayan, also an ethnic Armenian and a Kremlin propagandist, have been reportedly barred from entering Armenia in response to a variety of comments deemed to be insulting by Yerevan.

During the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Simonyan said the lack of an actual response from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to come to Armenia’s aid was correct in light of Armenia’s supposed ‘anti-Russian sentiment’.

Simonyan also said Armenia had ‘provoked’ Russia by refusing to recognise Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

Following her announcement that she had been banned from entering Armenia, Simonyan called Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a ‘degenerate and a traitor to the Armenian people’ who had ‘sold and betrayed the interests’ of his country.

She later claimed that she had not been planning to go to Armenia anyways while Pashinyan was in power, but found the entry ban ‘embarrassing’ and ‘disrespectful’.

Kremlin propaganda turns up the heat on Armenia

Russia and Armenia’s rapidly deteriorating relations have taken a new turn in recent weeks, with the Kremlin’s propaganda channels openly turning on Armenia, and in particular, its leader, Nikol Pashinyan. According to Russia’s state-run Channel One, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is, per the title of a 23 October broadcast, ‘a harbinger of trouble’. The hour-long programme was dedicated in its entirety to criticism of Pashinyan, focusing on the idea that he had sold, or was in the

OC MediaA