“Vardanyan has been engaged in charity work in Russia for many years, he has launched over two hundred humanitarian initiatives. Despite his departure and renunciation of Russian citizenship, Vardanyan was still a part of Russian projects and continued to provide support.

Russian public figures, human rights activists, cultural figures, and businessmen came to his defense. Obviously, this is not enough — the prominent philanthropist is still behind bars.

Earlier, Vardanyan was accused of evading sanctions, however, let me remind you, he “fled” sanctions and ran to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, not to Nice. He returned to his homeland to resolve the conflict, and in this case, a Russian passport would have evoked speculations associated with Moscow’s participation. The Russian authorities should pay attention to Vardanyan’s detention — the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not over as long as the prisoners are being held in Baku.”