At the opening of the first public forum, "Russia - Armenia," in Moscow on December 15, Deputy Speaker of Russian State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy called Armenia's distancing from Russia detrimental.

"2500 non-governmental organizations under the American embassy [in Yerevan], the largest US representation in the former USSR, grants, money and indoctrination of Armenian youth, Armenian society that Armenia can live without Russia," he noted.

The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma urged the Armenian leadership not to repeat the mistakes of the post-Soviet countries, "which tried to get everything they could get from Russia, and at the same time get everything from Europe."

"When the last war in Karabakh was going on, I had Armenian MPs in my office every week saying: 'Please call, tell me, do something, get through to the President of Russia, stop the war! Our guys are dying, [they] are brought in coffins from the front.' And today, these MPs are no longer there - not at all; no one is there. I will remind you that it was [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who stopped the bloody war then," Tolstoy said.