Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9709249

During a Q&A at the World Youth Festival in Sirius, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, Margarita Simonyan criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He has suspended Yerevan’s participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is considered Russia’s equivalent to NATO.

Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of the Kremlin mouthpiece RT. As an ally of Vladimir Putin and a regular guest on state television, she pushes the Russian leader’s rhetoric about his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Armenia’s youth must understand that Pashinyan is a traitor to the Armenian people and is leading Armenia to complete destruction if he remains in power,” said Simonyan on Monday, to applause from the audience.

Simonyan, who is of Armenian descent and has described herself as both Russian and Armenian, said that, if voters continued to support Pashinyan, “there will be no Armenia in five years—just as there is no longer any Karabakh in the form in which the Armenians needed it,” Simonyan said. “Armenia will not exist at all, you will see.”