Pyunik's Russian Players Did Not Receive Visas for Trip to Estonia, Club Owner Says

The owner of Pyunik, Artur Soghomonyan, commented on the visa issue faced by the team’s Russian players, as reported by Armsport.am.

“We had the same problem last year in the match against Zalgiris from Vilnius. This year, history repeated itself with Estonia, and we will see what happens with Sweden (if Pyunik advances to the next round of the Conference League, they will play against Kalmar). The Estonian visa is issued in Armenia by the Lithuanian embassy, while the Swedish visa is handled by Poland. Both embassies fundamentally do not issue visas to Russians, citing their state policy as the reason. According to the Polish consulate, even if we obtain a visa for a player through another country and arrive at their match, it can be canceled on site, and the player can be deported. This is already excessive, beginning to destroy everything, even outside of Russia. We cannot deny the fact that this player is a citizen of the Russian Federation. According to all documents, he is a citizen of the Russian Federation. Naturally, we are not ready to take such a risk. There are clubs in the Armenian league with many more Russian legionnaires, and they may face more serious difficulties,” Soghomonyan said in an interview with Championship.