Posted on 07/20/2018 12:35:31 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
A Russian military official has apologized after Russian soldiers carried out unannounced exercises in the Armenian village of Panik on July 17.
30 Russian soldiers blocked off the roads in the village after which a column of military vehicles passed through accompanied by loud gunfire, as documented by local residents:
“Everyone immediately ran out of their houses after these sounds, there were even children who fainted,” one local, Vardan Makeyan, told the news website Aravot. “It's insulting that no one warned us that there would be military exercises on the territory of our town.”
The soldiers were from Russia's 102nd military base in Gyumri, which has increasingly become the source of resentment among Armenians. The base hosts about 5,000 Russian soldiers, both land and air forces. In 2010 Armenia and Russia signed an agreement extending the base's lease until 2044.
In 2015, a soldier from the base went AWOL, broke into a house, and killed six members of a family. The incident sparked unprecedented protests in Gyumri against the base.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for the new Armenian government.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is delicately balancing his ties with the West and those with a Russia which he distrusts and which distrusts him.
The next day, the governor of Shirak region, where the incident took place, met with a deputy commander of the base. “We came to an agreement on the issue,” said the Russian representative, Colonel Aleksey Polyukhovich, following the meeting. “We will carry out an investigation on the incident, after which a press conference will inform about the results.”
Shirak Governor Karen Sarukhanyan added that the Russians explained the situation as “force-majeure” and said he was assured that “this was the first such incident, and it will not happen again.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurasianet.org ...
The Olympics in Russia were just cover for the Invasion of the Crimea
Julie London record sales have soared.
Kids love to see tanks and military cr**.
And so you run from your house??
Russia has a base there.
Russia and Armenia are allies.
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