Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting with compatriots at the Russia House, Yerevan, May 21, 2025

Since our arrival yesterday, we have conducted fruitful meetings with our colleagues in Yerevan. We have engaged in productive negotiations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Upcoming are meetings with the President and the Prime Minister, as well as an address at the Russian-Armenian University.

I am now delighted to visit the new, splendid premises of Rossotrudnichestvo (the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation) in Armenia. I trust this facility will become – or has already become – a true home for our compatriots in the Republic.

Statistics provided to me indicate that in 2024 alone, the Russia House in Armenia organised 550 distinct cultural and humanitarian events, attended by over 40,000 individuals. This accounts for more than two-thirds of all such initiatives in Armenia. Considering the active operations of this branch, alongside the activities of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Gyumri, we may conclude that interest in the Russian language and culture remains robust. Projects in this sphere, framed as humanitarian assistance, enjoy considerable popularity – particularly, I am gratified to note, among the younger generation.

This work is vital, especially under the current circumstances where the international situation – due to the West’s efforts – does not foster the development of people-to-people contacts across many spheres. This is regrettable.

I hope this trend, emanating from the European Union, will ultimately be recognised as incompatible with the long-term interests of all peoples within our shared space.

I wish to inform you that today, we discussed prospects for advancing our relations in the cultural sphere, including collaboration with compatriots and representatives of the Armenian leadership. Specifically, we addressed the potential opening of three additional branches of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, supplementing the existing branch in Gyumri – in Vanadzor, Ijevan, and Kapan. In Vanadzor, bureaucratic procedures are nearing completion. We anticipate similar progress in the other two locations – Ijevan and Kapan.

I am confident that as these plans materialise, we will be able to pursue more substantive and active projects in the interests of our compatriots residing there, thereby strengthening the fraternal ties with our Armenian friends.

I would like to express gratitude to our compatriots in Armenia for their active participation in the 8th World Congress of Compatriots, held in Moscow in October 2024. The event brought together over 400 delegates from more than 100 countries. They advocated for maintaining the course of developing relations with Russia, their historical homeland, and for contributing to the advancement of our cultural ties.

We highly value the initiative of numerous diaspora organisations in collecting humanitarian aid for Russians affected by the special military operation. The resolution of the 8th World Congress of Compatriots outlined crucial moral and spiritual benchmarks for the Russian diaspora at this juncture.

Special thanks are due to the Armenian delegation, which was among the most representative at the forum. I emphasise that our Ministry – I serve as Chairman of the Government Commission for Compatriots Living Abroad – will continue intensifying efforts to support the diaspora, reinforcing the unity of our compatriots on patriotic principles, grounded in a commitment to mutually respectful and beneficial dialogue with both host-country authorities and other civil society structures dedicated to strengthening the standing of Russian compatriots.

These efforts yield tangible results, despite the overtly illegitimate attempts by certain foreign states to fragment the diaspora component of Russian society and the state. The objectives pursued by our detractors are transparent. They make no secret of their aim: to pressure Russian communities into abandoning their traditions and civilisational roots, knowing full well that without this, their illegitimate, unacceptable, and anti-societal goals cannot be advanced.

We are convinced that the unity demonstrated both during the World Congress and throughout the five regional and sixty-three country-specific conferences held in 2024 safeguards the national-historical cohesion of our people. This aligns not only with the interests of the Russian Federation but, most importantly, with your own interests – those who, by fate’s design, reside abroad yet strive to preserve cultural and humanitarian bonds with their historical Motherland.

In closing, I wish to acknowledge the statement adopted by the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriot Organisations – first at the outset of the special military operation in March 2022, then in February 2023 – condemning the act of vandalism at the monument to the children of besieged Leningrad in Yerevan, and again in March 2024 denouncing the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.

I sincerely thank you for your endeavours. We do not seek to impose an agenda upon your work. You undertake it independently. The fact that this agenda prioritises preserving humanitarian, cultural, and educational ties fully complies, in my view, with all international human rights conventions and the protection of minority rights. We will steadfastly uphold these legitimate, internationally recognised rights and provide every possible assistance in their defence.