Narek Karapetyan prevented from leaving Armenia

ArmInfo. Narek Karapetyan, a member of the board of the "Strong Armenia" bloc, was prevented from leaving Armenia. He announced this on his Facebook page.  Karapetyan explained that today, together with a film crew from the Armat Media website, he was supposed to be on the Georgian military road leading  to Russia, better known as "Upper Lars," and go live from there. 

"We wanted to demonstrate the shameful situation that has developed  today in the export of Armenian agricultural products and the passage  of Armenian trucks across the [Russian-Georgian - ed.] border. This  is a joint project with Armat Media, as part of which we were  supposed to show you a line of Armenian trucks approximately 15 km  long," the political party's board member noted in a published video  message.

However, according to him, border guards at the Armenian-Georgian  border, when he attempted to cross, informed him that his exit was  prohibited. "But the border guards informed us that my visit was  prohibited and imposed restrictions on me. Therefore, Armat Media  will go on air, and I will continue to monitor the developments from  here," Karapetyan concluded.

As a reminder, Russia previously imposed trade restrictions on the  import of a number of agricultural products from Armenia. For  example, a temporary ban on stone fruits and grapes from Armenia took  effect on June 2. The restrictions targeted cherries, sweet cherries,  apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, and fresh grapes, allegedly due  to "increasing supply violations." This wasn't the first measure  Russia imposed against Armenian exports. Previously, Rosselkhoznadzor  also banned the import of fish and fish products from Armenia, making  an exception for only two enterprises that had passed Russian  inspection. Russia also restricted the import of Armenian flowers,  mineral water, cognac, wine, vegetables, and strawberries.  Experts  attribute Moscow's actions not only to sanitary concerns but also to  the sharp deterioration in relations amid Armenian Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan's policy of rapprochement with the EU.