“Vardanyan had lived in Russia for a long time — at first, doing business, then launching social projects. He opened the Skolkovo business school, co-founded the Primakov Foundation, helped Russian NPOs in solving social problems. As part of its work, Philin Philgood supported over 100 Russian non-profit organizations, 30 of which were created with Vardanyan’s participation. Being its key benefactor, he provided money for the construction of the temple complex of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of New Nakhichevan and Russia. Ruben continues to take part in these and many other social projects to this day.

During the military conflict in the NKR, Vardanyan decided to leave Russia to support his compatriots. This was followed by the renouncement of Russian citizenship, motivated by the desire to be honest with their people and to avoid any doubts regarding his country affiliation. Subsequently, it led to much controversy — some people accused Vardanyan of dodging sanctions, others saw this act as a betrayal. But one should keep in mind that people avoiding sanctions usually flee to the opposite direction and express vehement denunciation of Moscow’s actions — we can see many such examples (these are standard actions of “fugitive billionaires”). Try searching the web for at least one of Vardanyan’s interview condemning Russia — he made no attempts to reinsure himself against sanctions. Moreover, even after his departure, Vardanyan, continued to help his Russian projects showing no fear of sanctions.

The entire Russian community came to Vardanyan’s defense: human rights activists, businessmen, charitable organizations, cultural figures — all of them unanimously called for the philanthropist’s release. And now the most important question. Should the Russian authorities protect their own citizen, albeit a former one? In my opinion, there are good reasons for this: Vardanyan has lived and worked in Russia for many years, and the projects launched by the philanthropist continue to serve the Russian Federation. Even from prison, Vardanyan tries to support them through his wife and children who live in Moscow. Obviously, it is Russia that should stand up for Vardanyan: the two sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will never agree.”