- Shoghik Galstian
Opposition leader Samvel Karapetian’s nephew and right-hand man Narek on Wednesday strongly denied police claims that he hid his dual Russian citizenship from authorities in order to be eligible to run in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
The Armenian constitution bars dual citizens, who have not lived in the country for the past four years, from holding senior government posts or seats in the National Assembly. This is why Samvel Karapetian, who has mainly lived in Russia since the early 1990s, is not on the list of his Strong Armenia bloc’s election candidates.
The list is topped by Narek Karapetian. Since his uncle remains under house arrest, he also leads nationwide campaign rallies held by the bloc widely regarded as the ruling Civil Contract party’s number one election challenger. Citing information provided by the Armenian police, the Investigative Committee said he “deliberately hid” his Russian citizenship from the Central Election Commission.
Alen Simonian, the Armenian parliament speaker and a leading Civil Contract member, was the first to make such an allegation late on Tuesday. Simonian posted on Facebook a purported document from a Russian state registry of companies which refers to Narek Kirakosian as a Russian national. The document does not specify his passport number or other personal data.
Karapetian Jr. was quick to deny having a Russian passport. “I have probably spent less time in Russia than in England or Switzerland,” he told journalists.
While not denying the document’s authenticity, he insisted that its reference to his dual citizenship is the result of a “mistake.” He said he has already asked the Russian Embassy in Armenia to certify that. He also threatened to sue the Investigative Committee if it does not refute the “fake news” within 24 hours.
As of Wednesday evening, it remained unclear whether the law-enforcement agency has formally charged Karapetian or summoned him for questioning. Nor did the Armenian Interior Ministry clarify whether it has asked the CEC to remove him from the ballot. Also, both agencies declined to say whether they will ask Russian authorities to confirm or deny Karapetian’s citizenship.
The Armenian government earlier fueled speculation about the entire opposition bloc’s possible disqualification after asking the European Union to send a “hybrid rapid response team” to Armenia for the elections. A similar EU mission was deployed in Moldova ahead of legislative polls held there last September. Two Moldovan opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were barred from the vote won by the former Soviet republic’s pro-Western leadership.
The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed in March that the EU is gearing up for a repeat of “the Moldovan scenario” in Armenia. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Yerevan against doing that when he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Moscow on April 1.
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Moscow Reviewing Ties With ‘Unfriendly’ Yerevan
The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, accused Armenia’s leadership of systematically taking hostile steps against Moscow when he met with other Russian officials on Wednesday to discuss the future of relations between the two countries.
“We fully understand the Armenian leadership’s desire to continue to draw economic benefits from relations with our country,” Shoigu said at the start of a meeting of the council’s “special working group.” “However, cooperation and strategic partnership are a two-way street. Therefore, I propose now discussing the further development of cooperation with Armenia in the political, economic and security spheres.”
“It is no secret that the leadership of that country has taken a number of steps of late that do not correspond to the spirit of allied relations with the Russian Federation,” he said, according to the TASS news agency.
In particular, Shoigu rebuked the Armenian government for seeking to join the European Union and accused it of increasingly siding with the EU against Russia on the international stage. He also blasted it for allowing Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend a recent European Political Community summit in Yerevan and implicitly threaten to disrupt the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow with drone strikes.
Shoigu went on to list other “unfriendly” steps taken by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration. Those include Yerevan’s ratification of the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023, extradition of Russian citizens to third countries and what he called efforts to drive Russian companies out of Armenia.
The Russian task force did not report any decisions right after the meeting that highlighted the latest upsurge in Russian-Armenian tensions. It came just over a week before a Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) summit in Kazakhstan during which Putin is expected to discuss Armenia’s continued membership of the Russian-led trade bloc. Putin and other Russian officials have said in recent weeks that it is not compatible with Yerevan’s European integration drive.
Pashinian has decided to boycott the summit. His foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that Armenia cannot be forced to quit the EEU which guarantees its exporters’ tariff-free access to the Russian market.
According to TASS, Shoigu spent much of his extensive opening remarks detailing the South Caucasus nation’s heavy economic dependence on Russia.
“Cooperation with Russia is the main driver of the Armenian economy,” declared the Russian security chief. “It’s difficult to dispute this fact.”
“I wonder in what quantities and under what conditions Armenian apricots, trout and mineral water will be supplied to the European Union,” he said, hinting at retaliatory measures against Armenian exporters.
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Pashinian Claims Good Rapport With Putin Amid Rising Tensions
- Astghik Bedevian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed to have a warm rapport with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday the day after Moscow questioned Armenia’s continued membership in a Russian-led trade bloc vital for the Armenian economy.
“We will not take any drastic action in relations with Russia,” Pashinian told an election campaign rally in the northern Lori province. “I have truly friendly relations with the president of the Russian Federation. I doubt that the president of the Russian Federation has had more contacts with any other leader since 2018. During this period, we have had more than 200 phone conversations.”
“And in general, our attitude towards Russia is very warm,” he added while alleging that the Armenian opposition is infested with Russian “agents.”
Amid the latest upsurge in Russian-Armenian tensions, Pashinian likewise accused Moscow on Tuesday of “sending agents to Armenia.”
The tensions were exposed during Pashinian’s most recent meeting with Putin held in Moscow on April 1. They rose further after Yerevan hosted on May 4-5 two European summits attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Putin said on May 9 that Armenia should choose “as soon as possible” between remaining part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and striving to join the European Union.
Putin is due to raise the issue at the EEU’s May 29 summit in Kazakhstan that will be boycotted by Pashinian. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said on Tuesday that he will specifically discuss with the leaders of other EEU member statutes “Armenia’s status” in the bloc.
Responding to Overchuk’s statement, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed on Wednesday that Armenia cannot be kicked out of the EEU against its will.
“They can always talk, and we can always participate in a conversation on any topic,” Mirzoyan said of the upcoming summit in comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But the issue of leaving the EEU is not on our agenda at the moment. Therefore, that discussion may be very amateurish or philosophical in nature.”
Overchuk also warned that the South Caucasus country can no longer combine its pursuit of EU membership with tariff-free access to the Russian market, a significant discount on the price of Russian gas and other economic advantages offered by Moscow.
Russia accounted for 35.8 percent of Armenian foreign trade last year, compared with the EU’s 11.7 percent share. Citing this and other data, Armenian opposition leaders claim that Armenia will face economic ruin if Pashinian wins the June 7 parliamentary elections
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, underscored the heightened tensions with Yerevan on Wednesday when she expressed shock at Pashinian’s public altercations with disgruntled voters which have marred his election campaign. She said that Western media should pay attention to those voters instead of accusing Moscow of trying to undercut Pashinian.
“That woman who ‘should be grateful’ that, as [Pashinian] said, her head was not smashed in a toilet around the corner, that man – my heart is bleeding, look at that footage – whose grandson died [during military service] and who came to Pashinian’s rally and asked a question, and he was accused of coming there for $550,” Zakharova told Sputnik Radio.
“What does Russia have to do with that? No, it’s not us, it’s Pashinian,” added the official.
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RFE/RL – Pashinian Pledges To Seize Election Rival’s Key Business Asset
Two days after vowing to “take out” his three main election challengers, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Wednesday the impending nationalization of Armenia’s largest cement plant belonging to one of them, Gagik Tsarukian.
Campaigning in the northern Lori province, Pashinian said prosecutors have recommended its “very quick” seizure after detecting “machinations” by its owner. He gave no details of the alleged fraud.
The plant is located in Ararat, a town 50 kilometers south of Yerevan. It is one of Tsarukian’s business assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars which prosecutors moved to confiscate in 2023, invoking a controversial law that allows the state to seize money, property and companies deemed to have been acquired illegally.
The confiscation has to be sanctioned by court. No such court ruling is known to have been handed down so far.
Tsarukian, whose Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) is one of the three main opposition groups running in the June 7 parliamentary elections, said he is undaunted by Pashinian’s statement and will continue to fight for regime change in the country.
“This is a sign that they feel their end has come,” he told reporters during a campaign trip to the Syunik province.
“I was told, ‘Mr. Tsarukian, when you start rightly criticizing [Pashinian] he gets mad; they are going to harm your assets; [law-enforcement authorities] have already received such orders,” he said. “But I said that I can’t swap my homeland for my assets.”
Pashinian drew parallels between the Ararat plant’s nationalization and the Armenian government’s controversial seizure last summer of Armenia’s national electric utility that followed the arrest of its owner, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian. The latter set up in the following months what analysts now view as the country’s largest opposition group, the Strong Armenia alliance.
Pashinian pledged on Monday to “take out” Tsarukian, Karapetian and the leader of another major opposition force, former President Robert Kocharian, during a furious argument with a disgruntled voter in Yerevan. The prosecutors made clear on Tuesday that they will not investigate the legality of what critics see as death threats. The opposition leaders said, for their part, that Pashinian is exposing his fears of losing power as a result of the elections.
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168: Not to transform the army, but to revive it
May 20, 2026
Unfortunately, there are no signs of deep dissatisfaction in the army against this situation.
Of course, in meetings with the middle and lower officers, they express terrible grievances, but the elite has somehow adapted to the agenda of the current government and is doing everything to serve it.
It is difficult to say who is prompting Nikol Pashinyan, but he is taking steps to make the elite of the army subservient to him.
Details in the video
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Armenpress: Xi says all hostilities must end immediately in Middle East
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said that the situation of the Gulf region in the Middle East is at a critical juncture between war and peace, and all hostilities must end immediately, the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.
Xi made the remarks when holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on an official visit to China.
Xi pointed out that renewed fighting should be avoided, and most importantly, negotiation should continue.
An early end of the conflict will ease disruptions to the stability of energy supply, the functioning of industrial and supply chains and the international trade order, Xi said.
“I have put forward four propositions on safeguarding and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East to further build international consensus, and help deescalate the situation, end hostilities and promote peace,” Xinhua quoted the Chinese president as saying.
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Armenpress: OpenAI defeats Elon Musk’s lawsuit, removes obstacle to IPO
A U.S. jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence company not liable to the world’s richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity, Reuters reported.
In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, California, federal court said Musk brought his case too late. The jury deliberated less than two hours.
The verdict simplifies the path for OpenAI to proceed with a possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion.
But OpenAI’s public face, Chief Executive Sam Altman, must also address the challenges to his reputation from some extremely personal testimony during the trial, including multiple witnesses describing him as a liar.
Musk said he will appeal, repeating his claim that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman viewed OpenAI as a means to great wealth.
“Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!” Musk posted on X. “Creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.”
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the trial, said in court after the verdict that Musk may face an uphill battle in an appeal, because whether the statute of limitations ran out before he sued was a factual issue.
“There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot,” the judge said.
OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year.
Musk has since founded his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, which is now part of his SpaceX rocket and satellite company.
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Putin addresses Chinese people ahead of visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a video message to the people of China ahead of his official visit to Beijing, which is set to take place days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to China.
In the message, Putin said he was “delighted” to be visiting Beijing again at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he described as his “long-time good friend.”
“Regular mutual visits and Russia-China top-level talks are an important and integral part of our joint efforts to promote the entire range of relations between our two countries and unlock their truly limitless potential,” RT quoted Putin as saying.
Putin is due to visit China on May 19-20 at the invitation of Xi. The trip coincides with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Russia-China Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.
The Russian president said the treaty had laid “a solid foundation for a genuinely strategic relationship and comprehensive partnership” between the two countries. He added that Moscow-Beijing ties had reached “a truly unprecedented level,” citing mutual trust, cooperation, and support on issues affecting what he called the “core interests” of both states.
Putin said Russia and China are expanding cooperation in politics, the economy, defense, and humanitarian exchanges, adding that these issues will shape the agenda of the upcoming talks in Beijing.
“I deeply appreciate President Xi Jinping’s commitment to long-term cooperation with Russia,” Putin said. “I am convinced that our warm and friendly ties enable us to chart the boldest plans for the future and bring them to life.”
The Russian president also highlighted growing trade between the two countries, saying it had “long surpassed the US$200 billion mark,” and noted that mutual settlements are now conducted almost entirely in rubles and yuan.
RT reported, citing Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, that Putin would travel with a high-level delegation that includes senior officials, ministers, and heads of major Russian companies.
Around 40 bilateral documents are expected to be signed during the visit, including a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
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Cuba warns U.S. military action would cause ‘bloodbath’ after drone report
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that any U.S. military action against Cuba would lead to a “bloodbath” with incalculable consequences for regional peace and stability.
“Cuba does not represent a threat,” Diaz-Canel said in a post on X.
The comments follow an Axios report published on Sunday, citing classified intelligence, that said Cuba had acquired more than 300 military drones and had discussed plans to use them to attack the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and Key West, Florida.
Cuba said the U.S. was fabricating a case to justify potential military intervention, Reuters reported.
On the streets of Havana, some residents said they would resist any attack despite the island’s deep economic hardship, according to Reuters.
POLITICO reported, citing a U.S. official and a person familiar with the administration’s discussions on Cuba, that President Donald Trump and his aides have grown frustrated that the U.S. pressure campaign—which includes starving the island of fuel—has not led Cuba’s leaders to agree to significant economic and political reforms. According to POLITICO, they are therefore taking the military option more seriously than before.
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WHO chief concerned at speed and scale of Ebola outbreak
The head of the World Health Organization expressed deep concern on Tuesday at the speed and scale of the Ebola outbreak, Reuters reported.
There have been at least 500 suspected cases and 130 suspected deaths from Ebola since the new outbreak began, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Later figures put the toll at 131 fatalities associated with the outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. There have been 516 suspected cases and 33 confirmed cases in Congo, according to a daily bulletin published by health authorities, and two confirmed cases in neighboring Uganda.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told members of the World Health Assembly meeting this week in Geneva that the “numbers will change as field operations are scaling up, including strengthening surveillance, contact tracing and laboratory testing.”
“I’m deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” Reuters quoted the WHO Director-General as saying.
A meeting of the WHO’s Emergency Committee is scheduled for later on Tuesday to discuss the Ebola outbreak, he said.
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