MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. A Russian soldier who killed a family of six in the Armenian town of Gyumri will be punished heavily, Russian Investigative Committee Spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the Committee’s chairman, Alexander Bastrykin, arrived in Yerevan to coordinate the investigation of this crime. “The Russian president has commissioned Alexander Bastrykin to work in close cooperation with Armenian law enforcement agencies to ensure objective and comprehensive investigation of this crime,” Markin said.

On January 12, a soldier of the Russian military base in Armenia identified as Private Valery Permyakov without permission had deserted his post with arms and cartridges. Later on, he broke into a private house in Gyumri and shot dead a family of six, including a two-year child, and wounded a six-month baby who died in hospital on January 19. He left his uniform and footwear with badges and his submachine gun and munitions and fled the scene. He was arrested on the same day by Russian border guards while trying to cross Armenia’s border into Turkey.