A blogger from Russia has come under the article on inciting hatred in Armenia.

Investigators in Armenia have charged Russian citizen Nadezhda Pirozhkova, living in Yerevan, due to a video with offensive remarks about Armenians, published on the day of the Vardavar holiday.

Pirozhkova is accused of public statements and the dissemination of materials aimed at inciting or promoting hatred, discrimination, intolerance, or hostility using mass media or information and communication technologies (paragraph 3 of part 2 of article 329 of the Criminal Code of Armenia). The article provides for imprisonment from one to four years.

On July 14, Pirozhkova published a video on Instagram* in which she sharply criticized the national holiday Vardavar, celebrated two days earlier, on July 12. She declared the act of splashing water on people who do not wish to participate in the holiday as an expression of aggression and referred to the Armenian people as "rat-like".

The video caused a wide public resonance. "If I am in your country, I am not obliged to follow any traditions," she stated in the video.

The reason for initiating a criminal case was a statement submitted to the Investigative Committee after the video was published. The police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia located Pirozhkova and brought her to the investigator, reported the press secretary of the Investigative Committee, Kima Avdalyan, as quoted by Armenia Today.

As a preventive measure, Pirozhkova has been placed under a travel ban, notes RIA “Novosti”.

On her social media page, the blogger apologized, stating that she “did not want to offend the Armenian people.” According to Pirozhkova, the fragment with the offensive words was published because she did not check the sound before posting the story. The original recording, in which Pirozhkova speaks about the "Armenian rat-like people" and uses profanity, is no longer available on her account.

On July 29, she published a post about her detention. “Three days in a temporary detention facility. Criminal prosecution for a video in the blog. I never thought I would write this. And that something like this would happen to me,” she wrote, in particular. The blogger also claims that she herself is a “former investigator.”

Pirozhkova actively uses the resonance around the video to promote her account - in the description of her page, she presents herself as “THE SAME NADYA 🇦🇲 VARDAVAR.”

Responding to commentators suggesting she return to Russia, she recorded a video explaining why she lives in Yerevan: according to Pirozhkova, her now ex-husband moved to Armenia with their common son several years ago “because of the well-known situation.” Subsequently, she moved to Armenia herself to see her child. In Russia, Pirozhkova claims she cannot return due to debts and the now established travel ban.

“My child has been living here with his father for four years. Now, because of my debts, if I return to Russia, I will not be able to see my child. And the child's father is not going to Russia,” the blogger explained in a post on July 12.