Issues underlying abduction of people by Russian forces in Gyumri

Abduction of a citizen on the territory of the Republic of Armenia

​In December 2023, we learned that Dmitri Sedrakov, who is a citizen of the Russian Federation of Armenian descent, was arrested by the Russian forces in Armenia and then transferred to the Russian Federation against his will.

Unwilling to participate in the war in Ukraine (the unit was stationed in the Zaporizhzhia Region), 39-year-old Sedrakov had fled from the medical facility after 6 months of combat operations and had moved to Armenia with the help of the “Go by the Forest” organization. According to the representative of the human rights organization, Ivan Chuviliaev, Sedrakov had spent only one week in Armenia, moving to Gyumri, probably in the hope of finding an affordable apartment.

A criminal case was initiated against Sedrakov in Russia for leaving the place of service without permission (sentence of up to 10 years in prison). The investigation was carried out by the 519th Military Investigation Division of the Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation stationed in Armenia. The same division investigated the murder of the Avetisyan family by Valery Permyakov in 2015.

Note that Article 5 of the 1997 agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation clearly stipulates that the 102nd Military Base can under certain circumstances arrest only its own servicemen if they have committed a crime against the Russian Federation or the servicemen of the military base, if they have committed a war crime or if the crime was committed on the territory of the military base. However, Sedrakov is not a serviceman of the 102nd Military Base and therefore could not be arrested by the Russian forces under any circumstances.

After keeping him illegally in the Russian military base in Gyumri for about a month, the Russian law enforcement officers transferred him to Russia.

The human rights organization “Go by the Forest” reported that during the Russian-Ukrainian war, they helped 600 Russian soldiers move to other countries, but this was the first time when a citizen settled in another country with their support was eventually arrested.

It is obvious that Sedrakov could not have been found and arrested on the territory of the Republic of Armenia by the Russian services if they did not have access to the Border Management Information System (BMIS) in Armenia. Moreover, the action would be impossible without the implementation of operational intelligence activities on the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

Even more, it is obvious that the circumstance that the passport control of passengers at Zvartnots Airport is also carried out by the Russian border guards, who can turn a blind eye to the fact that the person is being taken out of the country against their will was used to get the illegally arrested person out of Armenia in violation of the Armenian law.

All the actions carried out in the territory of the Republic of Armenia aimed at finding Dmitry Sedrakov, then taking him to the 102nd Military Base and transferring him to the Russian Federation, were absolutely illegal, violating the laws of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian-Russian interstate agreements.

Disregard of legal procedures

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia reported that they did not receive, discuss or approve a motion to arrest, detain, and hand over Sedrakov to the competent authorities of the Russian Federation. In other words, no established legal procedure that should be ensured and observed in the event of initiating criminal prosecution on the territory of Armenia, as well as in the event of finding the person who committed the alleged crime and handing them over (extradition) to another state, was observed. Meanwhile, Article 3(1) of the RA Criminal Procedure Code states:

In the territory of the Republic of Armenia, proceedings in criminal cases shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of this Code, irrespective of the place where the crime was committed, unless otherwise prescribed by the international treaties of the Republic of Armenia.

In addition, there were reports in the media that before the arrest of Dmitry Sedrakov, the Russian law enforcement officers carried out the “external observation” operational intelligence activity in Gyumri, which no foreign law enforcement agency has the right to do in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

It should also be noted that the deployment of Russian military police forces in Armenia constitutes a breach of the Armenian-Russian agreements, which we referred to back in 2018.

Note that in the near future the Union of Informed Citizens will start a legal process related to the access of Russian border guards to the BMIS system.

Not the first time

This is by no means the first case when Russian forces in Armenia have exceeded authority or have illegally used access to the BMIS system.

In January 2015, Russian border guards abducted Valery Permyakov, a soldier of the Russian 102nd military base wanted for the murder of 7 members of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, from the RA law enforcement officers near the village of Bayandur in the Shirak region.

And in 2016, pro-Russian groups published data on citizens and vehicles that had crossed border checkpoints of the Republic of Armenia. According to the investigations published in the media, there is reasonable suspicion that the leak was organized by the border guards of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, which, as it was revealed at that time, has unrestricted access to the BMIS system of the Republic of Armenia, that is, to the personal data of all citizens crossing the RA border, with the permission of the Armenian side.

In 2018, the Russian military base kept and for a long time refused to hand over to the Armenian side serviceman Razgildyaev, who had beaten a cleaning lady to death in Gyumri, in fact preventing the murderer from standing before a court in Armenia.

You can learn more about the history of violations of law by the officers of the FSB border guard troops of the Russian Federation stationed in Armenia here, and the stories about the 12 Armenians killed by the officers of the 102nd military base of the Russian Federation here.

Ruzanna Avagimyan
Union of Informed Citizens