During an interview with “168 Hours”, former plenipotentiary adviser to the Russian Ombudsman Arbak Khachatryan, who has just recently been released from prison, denied the rumors claiming that the semi-weekly has only talked with him and one of the witnesses of his case Yuri Ryabtseyev. Khachatryan was arrested in 2003 for providing financial aid to presidential candidate Artashes Geghamyan during the presidential elections. On February 5, 2003, the customs officials at the “Sheremeteyevo-1” airport’s VIP room arrested Russian doctor and citizen of Russia Yuri Ryabtseyev before he got on the plane for the Moscow-Yerevan flight. He was accused of trying to transfer 120,000 dollars to Armenia illegally. A. Khachatryan also denied the rumors in the press that he has been the adviser to the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
“That was just a piece of document. I have only met with Levon Ter-Petrosyan one or two times. I couldn’t be the adviser to someone, who led a strong republic like the USSR to its collapse and turned Armenia into one of the hungry countries of Africa. The entire nation has been cheated on by the leaders whom they had rightfully chosen and the leaders that had a chance. We all believed that “independence” would lead us to the living standard of all developed countries. It’s wrong to throw all the blame on one person, even the first president. By doing that, we will simply show the international community how weak we are. Let’s not forget that the people of any country can never blame the authorities for their errors in politics, but will never pardon them for theft.”