Russians to protect Armenian borders

The head of the Russian Borders Office, Lieutenant General Sergey Bondarev, has stated that Russian Border Guards will fulfill their duties if the Armenian-Turkish borders are opened. He said that opening these borders is the internal affair of Armenia and Turkey and Russian border troops will be following the agreement concluded between Armenia and Russia in 1992.

“Today the Armenian-Turkish border is closed but the Armenian people can be calm about it. Russian border guards will do their duty,” stated Bondarev.

According to a bilateral agreement between Armenia and Russia, Russian border guards patrol the Armenian borders with Turkey (330 kilometres long) and Iran (45 kilometres long). Russian border guards also control the Yerevan international airport, Zvaltnots.

In 2009 Russian border guards reported 99 cases of attempts to violate the Armenian border, 98 at Zvartnots airport. One person was detained attempting to cross the Armenian-Turkish border. During this period more than a thousand persons were detained due to some error on their documents and smuggled goods worth USD 14,700 and 21 knives were also recovered.

There are 5,000 Russian border troops in Armenia and this number will be maintained for the near future.