The explosion killed at least four people and wrecked a section of the 19-kilometer road bridge which has been a key supply line for Russian troops fighting in southern Ukraine.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the arrests on Wednesday morning. It said that one of the suspects is an Armenian citizen born in 1985 and identified as Artur Terchanian. The FSB shed no light on Terchanian’s alleged role in the October 8 explosion which it said was organized by Ukrainian military intelligence and its director, Kyrylo Budanov.
In a statement, the FSB said the explosive device was camouflaged in plastic film rolls that left the Ukrainian port of Odesa in August and transited through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia before entering Russia on October 4.
The statement said that the cargo underwent customs clearance in Yerevan from September 29 to October 3. Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, meaning that its cargo shipments to Russia, mainly carried out via Georgia, are exempt from Russian customs duties.
According to the FSB, the customs clearance procedure was handled by a customs brokerage firm, GURG Group, registered in the northern Armenian town of Alaverdi.
The officially registered addresses of GURG Group and its formal owner, Gurgen Shlepchian, are that of an Alaverdi apartment currently rented by a Russian national. It emerged that the apartment belongs to Shlepchian’s sister.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, she said that her brother works in neighboring Georgia. She said he is involved in trade but refused to give other details of his work.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said later on Wednesday that it is looking into the Armenia-related claims made by Russia’s powerful security service. It said it has instructed the National Security Service to launch an inquiry.
“The Office of the Prosecutor-General will be consistent in fully establishing the circumstances of the published information,” it added in a statement.
Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) reported afterwards that Terchanian, the arrested Armenian suspect, drove a truck that entered Armenia from Bulgaria via Georgia at the end of September. The SRC said that an X-ray scan conducted by Armenian customs officers at the border found no indications of banned substances hidden in the truck.
The vehicle delivered cargo commissioned by GURG Group, the government agency added without elaborating.
The SRC further revealed that Terchanian is also a Georgian citizen. The suspect's name is not on Armenia’s national voter registry, suggesting that he was not a permanent resident of the country.
On Monday Russian forces launched mass missile strikes against Ukrainian cities, including power supplies, in what President Vladimir Putin said was retaliation for the "terrorist attack" against critical civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the bridge blast. But some Ukrainian officials have celebrated the damage and an unidentified Ukrainian official told the New York Times that Kyiv was behind the attack.