Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Mirzoyan and the head of the country's Ministry of Defense Papikyan will not take part in the meetings within the CSTO in Minsk on November 22. Speaker of Parliament Simonyan made a similar decision.
“Armenia has not yet made a decision on leaving the organization, but I believe that my participation in the current situation is inappropriate,” Simonyan noted.
Armenia will not be represented at the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers even at the level of deputy minister. On November 14, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he would not be able to take part in the CSTO meeting in Minsk. Previously, he criticized the pro-Russian organization aimed at ensuring the collective security of a number of post-Soviet countries for not providing support to Armenia.