Protesters in Armenia again demand opportunity to travel back to Russia
A group of people again gathered outside the Armenian government building on Thursday to demand an opportunity to travel back to Russia.
The protesting citizens who came to Armenia from Russia a few months ago had to stay in the country due to the closure of state borders amid the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the protesters said only Russian citizens are now allowed to return home by charter flights, while the government fails to resolve the issue they have been raising for weeks.
A 58-year-old woman said she visited Armenia six months ago and could not go back to Russia to join her family and return to work.
“We are asking, demanding them to take action for us to rejoin our families. It’s simply no longer possible to survive here,” she said.
The woman said she is being denied a job in Armenia due to her age and is only living on a disability pension of 30,000 drams, hardly making both ends meet.
Another protesting woman said they have applied to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, government and Armenian Embassy in Russia, but have received no clear response yet.
The Foreign Ministry is said to be in talks with Russian counterparts over the possibility of Armenian citizens traveling to Russia, which the woman refuses to believe.
“We want to get clear answers; let them specify timeframes for the [border] opening, we will go home and wait. It seems to us that they are not holding talks at all, otherwise they would provide any information,” she added.