Russian law-enforcement authorities said they believe Boris Avagian committed suicide after fleeing a courtroom during his trial and taking refuge in the diplomatic mission.
Avagian worked as a deputy chief of Karabakh’s emergencies service during and after the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. After being sacked in April 2021, he moved to Russia where he was subsequently arrested on tax evasion charges denied by him. He was reportedly released from custody before going on trial earlier this year.
Avagian, who had also served as deputy mayor of the Armenian town of Artik, was found dead in the consulate’s locked toilet hours after recording a video message in which he complained about what he described as the Armenian authorities’ refusal to have him “extradited” to Armenia where he is facing separate criminal charges.
“As a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, I demand that the prosecutor-general of the Republic of Armenia make a decision and send Armenian police officers to carry out my extradition,” the 43-year-old said in the video sent by him to the Yerevan-based based journalist Lia Sargsian.
“When he was talking to me, he said that he has been at the consulate for 13-14 hours and has information that he will be handed over to Russian law-enforcement,” Sargsian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The acting Armenian consul in Saint Petersburg, Aza Grigorian, refused to comment on Avagian’s death. There was also no immediate reaction from the authorities in Yerevan.
Russian media cited Avagian’s Russian lawyer, Konstantin Tarasenko, as saying that his client could not have killed himself. But the Armenian ambassador to Russia, Gurgen Arsenian, ruled out the possibility of his murder. Arsenian told the Armenian newspaper Hraparak that Avagian cut his veins and bled to death.