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Russian State Dumaâ€™s committee chairman: â€œThe proposal of penalization of denial of â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in Russia is a provocationâ€

13 January 2012 13:22 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow. Farid Akbarov â€“ APA. â€œThe proposal of penalization of denial of â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in the multinational Russian Federation is a provocation and it can undermine the stateâ€, said the chairman of the Russian State Dumaâ€™s committee on CIS issues Alexei Ostrovsky, APA correspondent reports from Moscow. He said level of the democratic development in the European Union and other countries became an absurd. â€œThose countries are suffering from it. The French parliamentâ€™s draft law is also an absurdâ€.

Ostrovski said Armenians live in the south of Russia, Krasnodar oblast, as well as in other regions. â€œArmenians live in France and the United States as well. But it doesnâ€™t mean that the Russian society should accept this idea. I consider that the adoption of this law exceeds the norms of democratic and civil societyâ€.

The lawmaker said it wouldnâ€™t be correct to raise this issue. â€œAll nations and peoples are equal for us. We have friendly relations with all of them. I think it is not reasonable to open Pandoraâ€™s box because it will be difficult to close it laterâ€.

Recently â€œUnion of Sochi Armeniansâ€ based in Sochi, Russia has started campaign for adoption a law penalizing denial of â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in Russia too. Chairman of the organization Valery Torosyan said the collected signatures would be sent to the speaker of the State Duma Sergei Narishkin, ruling United Russia Party and the lawmakers from the opposition.