A relevant Russian-Armenian agreement signed in December 2020 allowed the two channels as well as the Kultura TV station affiliated with one of them to retain their slots in Armenia’s national digital package accessible to TV viewers across the country. The agreement bars them from commenting on domestic Armenian politics and spreading “hate speech.”
Armenia’s National Commission on Television and Radio has recently accused the Kremlin-controlled broadcasters of violating this provision amid a further deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. In September, an Armenian pro-government lawmaker called for a ban on their retransmission, saying that the Russian broadcasts pose a threat to the South Caucasus nation’s security. She appeared to allude to their reports critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The Armenian Ministry of High-Technology pledged to raise the matter with the Russian government. In a statement released on Thursday, the ministry said senior officials from the Russian Ministry of Digital Development and Mass Communication acknowledged violations of the retransmission agreement during talks held with its representatives.
“An agreement was reached to take steps towards proper compliance with all points of the agreement,” it said.
The Russian ministry was quick to deny this in a statement cited by Russian news agencies, however.
“The Russian side took note of the concerns of the Armenian side. However, no specific documentary evidence of these facts was provided by [Armenian] colleagues,” read the statement.
It added that the two sides agreed to “ensure full implementation of the agreement” and “maintain close cooperation.”
The Armenian ministry insisted on Friday that the Russian side the “accepted the fact of violations” in a joint communiqué adopted by them. It noted at the same time that the Armenian side avoided holding a “substantive discussion” of those violations during the talks.
The Armenian government faced more calls from its supporters and Western-funded groups to ban the retransmission after Russia’s leading state broadcaster, Channel One, derided and lambasted Pashinian during an hour-long program aired in October. The program featured pro-Kremlin panelists who denounced Pashinian’s track record and portrayed him as a Western puppet tasked with ending Armenia’s close relationship with Russia.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to protest against “offensive and absolutely unacceptable statements” made during the show.
The Armenian charge d’affaires in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry the following day. Ministry officials condemned what they called anti-Russian propaganda spread by Armenia’s government-controlled media.
In the last few years, Armenian Public Television has regularly interviewed and invited politicians and commentators highly critical of Moscow to its political talk shows. Their appearances in prime-time programs of the TV channel run by Pashinian’s loyalists have become even more frequent lately.