YEREVAN. – During the war, the Russians were closing the air[space] on a regular basis. Hrant Bagratyan, the leader of the Freedom Party and former PM of Armenia, on Friday told this to reporters, in connection with the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall.

"Sometimes we wonder why they reopened the air[space] on November 4. We were using the Russian air defense systems. On the first day of the war [on September 27], the enemy destroyed—in two hours—our command post which, for some reason, was located in Shushi [city of Artsakh]. Before, it was in Chobankara [i.e., a former village in Armavir Province of Armenia]. Who is that idiot who moved it to Artsakh where the probability of hostilities is high?" he added.

According to him, the Armenian side was winning until October 9. "If that idiot [i.e., acting PM Nikol Pashinyan] had not bought the Su-30SM [Russian-made fighter jets], we could have had a TOP 15 unit, as well as the Pantsir-S1 [Russian-made air-defense missile-gun system], and we would have won," Bagratyan said.