The Russian Embassy in Armenia drew a parallel between the Shirak governor’s statements about certain “Ivans” and the lexicon of the German Nazis during World War II.

ArmInfo. The Russian Embassy in Armenia drew a comparison between statements by Shirak Province Governor David Arushanyan about certain “Ivans” and the lexicon of the German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

The Russian diplomatic mission said it had reacted with bewilderment to the mention of certain “Ivans” in a post on Shirak Province Governor David Arushanyan’s personal Facebook page dated October 17, 2026, which “involuntarily brings to mind the lexicon of the German Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.”

“We would not like to think that an official heading a region where the 102nd Russian military base and Russian border guards serve considers public statements that could provoke national hostility toward Russians to be acceptable, which would fundamentally contradict the spirit of the centuries-old friendship between the peoples of our countries,” the statement by the Russian Embassy in Armenia, published on the diplomatic mission’s social media, said.

It should be noted that the governor of Shirak Province published an angry post on his Facebook page in connection with the organization by the “Strong Armenia” party of Samvel Karapetyan of festive events marking Gyumri Day. “Several video cameras, several concerned faces, several high-sounding phrases about ‘our Gyumri’—and there you have yet another political performance ready. All that remains is to find an audience. But there is one small inconvenience here: Gyumri is not your ‘Nizhny Tabor,’ and Gyumri residents are not your ‘Ivans,’” Arushanyan wrote. As a postscript, he added: “We are a hospitable people; our guests are above all else to us. But do not try to jump above our heads—falling from a height is painful. Touring performers, be careful.”

We should add that since 2025, the Armenian prime minister, while making barbed remarks about Russian businessman of Armenian origin Samvel Karapetyan, who conducted business activities in Kaluga at the beginning of his career, has periodically used the phrase, “This isn’t Nizhny Tapr, Samvel Kaluzhsky.”