Valery Permyakov committed three rather than two crimes: he abandoned his unit, killed the Avetisyan family and tried to illegally cross the Armenian-Turkish border, with the last case being within the competence of the Armenian law enforcers, Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute Sergey Minasyan told journalists on Wednesday.
He said it was strange that after being caught on the border Permyakov was given to the 102nd Russian military base rather than to relevant Armenian authorities. "All those references to the Russian Constitution saying that Russia should not give its citizens to other states are holding no water as Permyakov is still beyond the Russian jurisdiction: in legal terms, Russia's territory in Armenia is its Embassy and Consulate General but not the 102nd military base," Minasyan said.
As regards Russia's decision to try Permyakov according to their laws, he believes that it was exclusively political. "After all the Russians supply us with arms and cheap gas, don't they?" the expert said.
He suggests that there may be a link between the tragedy in Gyurmi and the growing tension on the NKR- Azeri contact line. "But this may be linked with the drop in oil prices.
Still I don't think that this will end in a war as the Azeri authorities is well aware of its possible consequences," Minasyan said