Armenian-Russian businessman Samvel Karapetyan detained in Yerevan

ArmInfo.Businessman and philanthropist, head of the Russian group of companies "Tashir"  Samvel Karapetyan was detained in Yerevan last night.

At approximately 03:00, he and his brother, head of the "Tashir"  charitable foundation Karen Karapetyan, got into a police car, which  took him to the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime. Before  that, criminal police officers conducted searches in the  businessman's house for several hours. According to the information  voiced by Karen Karapetyan, about 45 people were detained.

In an exclusive comment to RT, Samvel Karapetyan noted that the  Armenian authorities are upset by his honest statement that he is "on  the side of the church, on the side of the people." Karapetyan said  that in Yerevan, law enforcement officers broke the arms of two  people who had gathered in support of the businessman. "I don't give  a damn about them, about the power grids: The people will have their  say, they will understand that they were wrong": the businessman  said.

The arrest followed immediately after Samvel Karapetyan's statement  in defense of the Armenian Apostolic Church. "A small group of  people, having forgotten the history of Armenia, the thousand-year  history of the Armenian Church, began to attack the Armenian Church,  the Armenian people. Since I have always been on the side of the  Armenian Church and the Armenian people, I will take direct part. If  the politicians do not succeed, then we will participate in all this  in our own way," Samvel Karapetyan noted the day before.

Against this background, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made an  open threat against Karapetyan. He effectively called the businessman  a "dissolute philanthropist", writing on social media: "Why have the  dissolute "priests" and their dissolute "benefactors" suddenly become  more active?" and threatened to rein them in. Immediately after that,  he added: "This is not the village of Nizhny Tapr in Kaluga. This is  the Republic of Armenia. I hope the taste of the state will remain in  your mouth." Then there were two more posts: "He says - we will  intervene in our own way. Now I will intervene in my own way,  scoundrel. Or, rather, to you"; "Well, interfere, why are you hiding  in the house?" (meaning that Karapetyan is currently in his house -  ed.).

We should also note that the day before, in the National Assembly of  the Republic of Armenia, the head of the ruling Civil Contract  faction in the country, Hayk Konjoryan, stated that the time had come  to discuss the issue of nationalizing the Electric Networks, which  are part of the Tashir Group of Companies project.  The Russian Group  of Companies acquired the electric networks in 2016 at the numerous  requests of the previous leadership of Armenia, in particular, the  then Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan.