MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The tragedy in Gyumri, Armenia, where a deserter from the local Russian military base killed a family of seven, should not be allowed to overshadow the traditional friendship between Russia and Armenia, the chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said while laying flowers at the Armenian embassy in Moscow. The ceremony was organized by the inter-parliamentary cooperation commission of Russia’s Federal Assembly and the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

“The tragedy has left no Russian indifferent. This crime can have no forgiveness and it deserves the strongest punishment,” Kosachev said at a meeting with Armenia’s ambassador Oleg Yesayan. Kosachev offered deep condolences over the Gyumri tragedy.

He believes that bilateral relations have a great safety margin, based on centuries-long history of relations and the sincere mutual affection of the two peoples.

Kosachev told Yesayan that the Gyumri tragedy had been analyzed in detail by the Federation Council’s members. “The corresponding proposals for stepping up international cooperation between Russia and Armenia on behalf of the Federation Council have been formulated. They will be presented for discussion by the FC’s international affairs committee, and then by the upper house’s Council,” Kosachev said.

According to the investigators’ preliminary findings the Russian army’s private, Valery Permyakov, armed with an automatic rifle, on January 12 deserted from the Russian base in Gyumri, Armenia, while on duty and ventured into the city, where in a private household he gunned down six members of the Avetisian family and injured a little baby, who would later die in a hospital. Permyakov was detained by Russian border guards the next day while trying to cross the border into neighbouring Turkey.

Earlier, Armenian Investigative Committee’s spokesperson, Sona Truzian, said Permyakov had pled guilty.