YEREVAN. Sept 7 (Interfax) - Pro-Russian blogger and activist Mika Badalyan has been kidnapped from outside a hotel in Goris, a town in the Syunik region of southern Armenia, by unknown individuals wearing masks, Yevgeny Primakov, head of Russia's Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), has said.
"My good friends in Yerevan have just told me that pro-Russian blogger and activist Mika Badalyan was abducted by unknown individuals wearing masks outside a hotel in Goris at about 9 p.m. on September 6. I am very alarmed. Mika Badalyan was arrested earlier and was even imprisoned, and many found the charges against him to be politically motivated," Primakov wrote on Telegram.
The day before Mikael Badalyan was kidnapped, the blogger took part in Primakov's radio program, "where he quite firmly articulated an oppositional point of view and criticized the Armenian government over what Mr. Badalyan described as an anti-Russian policy," he said.
"I wouldn't like to think that Badalyan's abduction has something to do with what he said on the radio. I expect the competent agencies of the Republic of Armenia to immediately resolve the situation and provide exhaustive and clear answers about Badalyan's fate and safety to the public," Primakov said.
The Sputnik Armenia radio station said in turn that Badalyan and Ashot Gevorgyan, an observer working for the station, were detained in Goris late on Wednesday and are now being held by the Investigative Committee.
"According to information available to Sputnik Armenia, investigatory procedures are now underway, but it has not been stated what the reason was for detaining [Badalyan]," it said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also commented on the situation.
"I am not ruling out that this is another provocation linked to the Russian-Armenian media forum held being in Yerevan. A provocation by those who dream of spoiling the relationship between the two countries. And the West has invested very large amounts of money in this. Apparently, forces directed toward this goal have become more active lately," Zakharova wrote on Telegram.