The Armenian authorities continue the policy of “sitting on two chairs”. This statement was made by Yuri Ushakov, assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, commenting on the recent events held in Yerevan, including the European Political Community Summit.

Ushakov noted that during the meeting of Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow in April, all issues were discussed and clarified.

“… But in Yerevan, unfortunately, they are trying to continue the policy of “sitting on two chairs”. I don’t know how long one can stay in such a position,” said the president’s assistant.

Thus, Ushakov answered the question of how the recent events in Yerevan were perceived in Moscow, including the signing of the declaration on strategic partnership between Armenia and Great Britain, and whether the Kremlin does not consider this as a way to break cooperation with Russia.

“All this, of course, harms the development of our bilateral relations, which are so beneficial for both Russia and Armenia. I would say that it is more beneficial for our Armenian friends than even for us,” he added.

The assistant of the President of the Russian Federation mentioned the favorable situation, particularly in terms of economic development. That situation is largely related to Armenia’s close economic relations with Russia and the EAEU.

—

Today, among the non-reportable issues, the government also accepted the two projects authored by the National Security Service.

First, the second item of the project “On redistribution and amendments to the law “On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2026″, and on making amendments and additions to the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Armenia dated December 25, 2025 N 1910-N” was marked as “confidential”.

With the latter, it is proposed to make a change in the list of the purchase plan aimed at improving the saturation of transport equipment at the expense of the funds provided by the state budget of NSS 2026: “even in 2025, in order to properly fulfill the obligations undertaken within the framework of the relevant purchase for the needs of the RA National Security Service”.

The draft states that this proposal will not cause changes in the revenues and expenses of the state budget.

“The expected result: As a result of the adoption of the project, the work of solving the problems faced by the service will be carried out more efficiently,” the rationale states.

We learn from the summary that it is about redistributing AMD 73,500.0 thousand within the framework of the general funds allocated to the RA National Security Service. in particular, it is planned to purchase 7 cars with a sedan body (unit price: AMD 10,500.0 thousand) within the mentioned amount.

The second project was about making additions to the decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia No. 1308-N of November 12, 2009:

With the latter, it is proposed to provide legal regulations regarding the import and export of military products, the transit transportation of military products, and the rejection of the licensing application for the intermediary activity of the trade of these products, if the granting of the license may pose a threat to the national security or interests of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the NSS, as a result of the adoption of the Project, clear legal regulations will be established in order to make the possible risks threatening the national security or interests of the Republic of Armenia more manageable arising from the circulation of military products.

“The adoption of the project derives from the item “Fight against terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism” of chapter 1 of the program of the Government of the Republic of Armenia (2021-2026) approved by the decision of the National Assembly of August 26, 2021, N NDO-002-N, according to which the fight against terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremism continue to be the most important factors in ensuring the external security of the Republic of Armenia, and in this field, Armenia’s international and interstate agreements and the fulfillment of its obligations within the framework of the agreements,” says the rationale.

—

Head of the security team of the “Strong Armenia” party, colonel-investigator Arthur Avanesyan (Kandaz) on March 31 remindedr: Taken during Anna Hakobyan’s visit to Tavush on April 1, 2023 the statement that 11,000 deserters was during the 44-day war, then he emphasized. “Our soldiers are not deserters, they fought like lions.”

Anna Hakobyan did not respond to the detective’s reminder, writing: “I cannot remember this person during the 44-day war. It would definitely have caught my eye, and of course it would have impressed me, I would hardly forget it. And the degree of his awareness about the war and the degree of awareness about the sensational news of just one month old in Inner Armenia are directly comparable. Obviously, he has no idea (news) from both of them.”

There have certainly been desertions during the 2020 war, but the question is, how many, from the regular army or from casual battlefield reservists and volunteers, and what prompted it?

In her post, Anna Hakobyan seems to question the fact that the soldier is not a deserter, the degree of awareness of others on such sensitive issues, we do not doubt that she possesses a serious information base.

Moreover, it is possible that, like Nikol Pashinyan, neither the 44-day investigation commission nor the law enforcement agencies have a lot of information in his hands. Why?

Doesn’t possessing such a volume of information base and not fully transferring it to the relevant authorities imply specific responsibility?

On April 1, we sent written requests to the RA Investigative Committee, the RA General Prosecutor’s Office, and the RA Ministry of Defense in order to obtain new data related to the desertion.

From the structure headed by Artur Poghosyan reported that they do not have “up-to-date” data on desertions during the 44-day war.

Anna Vardapetyan too informed that on the charges of voluntarily leaving the military unit or the place of service, desertion and refusal to fulfill the duties of military service Six years after the 44-day war, a guilty verdict was passed 410 about the person.

And the Ministry of Defense responded to our written request by violating the 30-day deadline. We tried to find out from the Ministry of Defense how many cases of desertion were recorded between September 27 and November 9, 2020, what information did the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces have, were there 11-12,000 deserters, and how many of them are related to the regular army and how many to the reserve army?

After more than 30 days, in response to our questions, Suren Papikyan stated that they are “outside the jurisdiction of the RA Ministry of Defense”.

How to understand whether there were no deserters from the regular army or… one thing is clear: the Minister of Defense at least does not confirm Anna Hakobyan’s claim or suspicion regarding desertion from the regular army.

It should be noted that on April 11, 168.am provided exclusive information and published documents Regarding cases of desertion and desertion among police officers and prison officers during the 44-day war.

And in our written request addressed to the Ministry of Defense, we also included the following questions:

– During the 44-day war, where was Anna Hakobyan before the formation of the “Erato” squad, was she given any assignment, is there any information about where she could see or not see detective Artur Avanesyan, Kandaz, was Anna Hakobyan assigned any intelligence tasks?

– Where was the “Erato” squad during the 44-day war?

– Where, when and for how long was Ashot Pashinyan’s squad during the 44-day war and did it carry out combat operations? And when did his squad retreat from Alpasha Hill?

Before the formation of the “Erato” detachment, in response to the question regarding the actions of Anna Hakobyan during the war, Suren Papikyan again noted that they were “outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia”. And during that period, Hakobyan was at the command post, remotely watching the ongoing combat operations, while being a leader The documents clearly state: who are entitled to it.

“In general, according to the governing documents, permanent or temporary permits are issued to enter relevant officials performing operational duties at command points,” the Ministry of Defense stated in its response to our written inquiry in 2024, when we asked to clarify who, according to the regulations, can enter the command point. After all, Anna Hakobyan is not the only one who entered the “forbidden area”.

Regarding the operations of the “Erato” detachment during the war, the place of deployment, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia stated in its letter:

“The “Erato” detachment, like other volunteer detachments, was included in the newly formed military units (units) in the Armed Forces, was equipped and came under the command of the commander of the 1st Army Corps.”

Note that there is nothing new in this answer, more so in 2023 168.amin response to the written request of the RA Ministry of Defense gave details that 2020 on October 25 equipped and came under the command of the commander of the 1st Army Corps, the squad was first deployed in the area of ​​Hartashen village, and then in the N combat position of Kornidzor.

And in June 2021, in the city of Abovyan, Nikol Pashinyan, referring to the “combat” actions of his wife Anna Hakobyan’s “Erato” squad, announced:

“After Stepanakert, when I say this is Sardarapat, you have to stop. my wife forms a women’s volunteer squad, and they go to Sisian, undergo combat training and go and stand in the trenches of Goris. What is wrong here, betrayal? They should have been in the salons for it to be true.”

What this gave in the context of hostilities is not difficult to guess, if not what it “took”.

Let us add that during the 44-day war, the commander of the 1st Army Corps of the RA Armed Forces was General Zhirayr Poghosyan, who seems to be only a witness in criminal cases.

Regarding Ashot Pashinyan’s volunteer action, Suren Papikyan reminded that information about this was already reported in 2023. Yes, some data provided by: where was he, when did he return from Artsakh, who was the commander?

But we still did not manage to find out, also this time, during the 44-day war in Jrakan and Kubatli, when was Ashot Pashinyan, how long did he stay and what combat operations did he participate in, when did he leave those areas?

Agree that the chronology and concreteness of the events can suggest a lot, especially when during the court session in the case of the former First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Tiran Khachatryan you find out that Ashot Pashinyan’s detachment may have something to do with the retreat from Alpasha Hill.

By the way, yesterday, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs Andranik Kocharyan remembered Tiran Khachatryan from the rostrum of the Parliament, moreover, against the background of the statements of the former RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan regarding the 44-day anniversary.

“The responsibility of the southern direction was on confederate Tiran Khachatryan, who was accidentally injured again, and we had failures in the south. You can ask Tiran Khachatryan questions in a closed alliance format: how did that happen? It’s all in the report, please read it. And there are videos, and they substantiate what I said,” Andranik Kocharyan stated.

We will still try to find out in what “tone” the general is mentioned in the 44-day report. And today, Seyran Ohanyan added another one to his recent announcements, stating:

“Certainly, the responsibility must be borne by those people who, seeing the whole retreat, encouraged the way of the whole retreat. It refers to today’s leader of the country, and to the then president. He himself says what was presented to him for the titles of general and heroes, he himself presented it to the president. Do you not know your duties, or what kind of task he has performed? If somewhere on the battlefield, a counterattack was organized, then let that captain, sergeant, private get the title of hero.”

In the context of “sticking” Nikol Pashinyan, so to speak, isn’t the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia indirectly targeting Tiran Khachatryan, the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the RA Armed Forces, who was in charge of the southern direction, and Onik Gasparyan, who proposed to give him the title of National Hero, whose “attributes” Tiran Khachatryan did not even take?

And it is very interesting that in these days and in the mentioned context, Seyran Ohanyan never remembered Ashot Pashinyan’s detachment, which could have something to do with the retreat from Alpasha hill. This is a separate discussion topic.

—

The economic reality of Armenia once again breaks the propaganda image of “economic success” built by the government over the years.

While Nikol Pashinyan’s government continues to talk about economic activity, “unprecedented growth”, increased pensions, the ordinary citizen faces a completely different reality in his daily life: constant price increases, decreasing purchasing power and social uncertainty. The latest data published by the RA Statistical Committee prove that in 2026 in March, the 12-month inflation was already out of the acceptable range for the second month in a row (2-4%). 3.3% inflation in January already became 4.2% in February, and in March it increased even more, reaching 4.5%.

If in February, some people tried to present the situation as a temporary phenomenon, now it is obvious that quite worrying and dangerous trends are forming within the economy. Against the backdrop of government announcements about high economic activity, demand-driven price pressures are actually maintained, and in the conditions of regional tension, supply-related risks are also deepening. In other words, the talk about “sustainability” can be considered as a fairy tale that an attempt is made to impose on the public.

The most worrying thing is that according to the Council of the Central Bank of RA in 2026 The official report of the May 5 session: 12-month normal inflation has already reached 4.7%of This means that even the seasonal price reduction of fruits and vegetables cannot control the general inflation. In other words, price increases have become profound and widespread. It seems that the RA citizen should spend less in these months, taking into account that the heating season is over, and utility bills logically decrease relatively, but the fact of inflation, along with non-increasing incomes, simply empties citizens’ wallets.

Such a situation is an indicator of the failure of economic policy, because every, even small, fluctuation in the region has a serious consequence on the economy of Armenia. this is the result of an economic policy that is exclusively dependent on external factors. By the way, the Central Bank Council in 2026 in the session of May 5, it did not change the refinancing rate of 6.5%, which has remained unchanged for about 5 months, until 2025. from December 16. It turns out that the government is trying to gain time during the pre-election period, avoiding tough but necessary decisions.

It is obvious that the current government, in all probability, already felt that in the case of such dynamics of inflation, it will be difficult to control the wave of social dissatisfaction rising among the public. That is why it was suddenly decided to increase the minimum pension by 10,000 drams before the elections. Moreover, that decision was so hasty and populist that even some officials of the ruling team learned about it at the last moment. What is this, if not a classic pre-election bribery?

This decision is miles away from being a long-term social policy solution. And even after this step, Pashinyan’s government could not fulfill its programmatic promise to equalize the average amount of the pension to the value of the consumer basket. Instead, the government began to artificially “fill” the missing money, pretending that the money returned from non-cash transactions through the cashback mechanism (repayment of pension and benefits) supposedly solves the problem. However, the government forgets to mention the most important thing: thousands of pensioners do not use cashback at all, they do not have the skills and knowledge to actively use bank cards, and in the case of rural settlements, making purchases with cashless transactions is simply limited.

The current situation is dangerous not only in the economic sense, but also in the political sense. On the one hand, the incomes of the citizens are not sufficient to withstand the increase in prices, on the other hand, the government continues to engage in short-term propaganda measures, trying to maintain the minimum level of social tolerance until the elections. The most dangerous thing is that the current inflation indicators still do not fully reflect the impact of those “pre-election gifts”. This means that in the coming months the citizen of Armenia may face a harsh reality․ the new inflation will simply “swallow” the noisy increases in pensions, and the government’s promises will again remain only on paper.

—

The extravagant promises made by European officials to Armenia will certainly be forgotten after the elections. Instead, Armenia and the Armenian people may pay a very heavy price for the various anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian statements made.

What happened in Armenia in the form of Euro summits was a political theater aimed at turning Armenia into a geopolitical theater on the one hand, and on the other hand at supporting the reproduction of Nikol Pashinyan. After successfully ratifying the recognition of Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan and depopulating Artsakh, they probably came to save Armenia in the same way.

From all of this, Armenia and the Armenian people may suffer much greater losses than the benefits of extravagant promises. The business is already suffering those losses. What will happen after all this, we will see in the near future. And if it suddenly turns out that after all this, Armenia faces much more serious problems with one of its main economic and trade partners, we should not be surprised.

The question is, who will come to our aid at that time? The European bureaucrats who can’t even solve the economic issues of their country?

Or will Macron save? Macron can save the economy of France, solve the social issues of the French people, who raise a social revolt day by day against Macron’s governments.

We see what kind of “super powerful” commercial and economic partner France is for Armenia. Only 1 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade is with France, which is so friendly to us. Exports from Armenia to France do not even reach 10 million dollars per year.

Before making political statements regarding the Armenian elections and Nikol Pashinyan’s defense, let Macron say what he has done all these years to expand and develop the economic relations between Armenia and France, to what extent he has created favorable conditions and opportunities for the import and sale of Armenian products in the French market, and to assist in reducing dependence on other markets, which also creates problems for the economy of Armenia with one of its main trading partners through political statements.

If tomorrow the Armenian business problems deepen in this market and Armenian products are pushed out, what will Macron and the European officials do? Or do you think they will open their markets to the Armenian economy and Armenian products? Today, only 8-9 percent of exports from Armenia belong to the entire European Union. It is about 650-700 million dollars per year. In the event that only the share of the Russian market in exports reaches 30-35 percent. By nominal value, it is 4-4.5 times more than in the case of the whole of Europe.

In recent years, even the former preferential regimes have been abolished for the sale of Armenian products in the European markets. And it turned out that now fewer goods from Armenia reach the European markets than years ago.

After all this, they make such loud statements about supporting Armenia’s economy, as if something big will change.

They have been talking about a financial assistance program for years. It is about 2021. it is about the announced 2.5 billion euro investments, which should have been completed by now. But even today they are trying to feed the Armenian people with the same 2.5 billion euro investments. In the EU-Armenia declaration adopted at the Yerevan summit, it was written that within the framework of the “global gateways” strategic plan, EU investments in Armenia are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros. We are talking about the same investments. At least what was said about the investment was an investment. they are mainly loans, namely expensive commercial loans taken from different banks.

And all this is said again on the eve of the elections.

2021 On the eve of the elections, they announced the investment of 2.5 billion in Armenia. Now they are doing the same thing on the eve of the elections to be held on June 7.

As then, so now they do this to show political support to Nikol Pashinyan. It is not important how far these plans will be implemented in the future. The important thing, as in 2021, is to ensure the reproduction of Nikol Pashinyan. And on that way, they are ready to promise Armenia golden mountains.

Once Nikol Pashinyan promised to flood Armenia with investments, and now the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He says: we want to make Armenia the main country for investments.

“Today, the EU adopted a statement calling on businessmen to invest in the economy of Armenia, since independence, Armenia was considered a risk zone for investments throughout the preceding period. This is also a fact of historical significance, because never before have we sent such a call, such a message, we have not heard from many of our international partners,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in Yerevan.

Ursula von der Leyen is probably not aware that at one time, even without such calls, large investments were made in “Armenia, which is considered a risk zone for investments”.

Investments almost stopped, even began to go back during the prime ministership of Nikol Pashinyan. And it’s not like today investors are standing in line waiting for Ursula von der Leyen or the EU to call for investors to flock to Armenia.

Nikol Pashinyan used to deceive the people with such lies, and now the European officials are doing the same. Before making such calls, it would be good if they asked themselves whether they would come to Armenia to invest, when investors and investments here are defenseless against the authorities’ arbitrariness, they can easily take away the property of a large businessman and investor. Or do the European officials and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, not know about this? What kind of investments can we talk about in a country where big investors are forced to take out a share of their property for the government?

Nikol Pashinyan also gives hope to the people that the EU has called to invest in Armenia. With calls to make investments, they flooded the economies of their countries with investments a long time ago, created an opportunity to breathe, otherwise they are already in a state of paralysis.

HAKOB KOCHARYAN

—

The European Union not only does not notice the repressions and political persecutions carried out in Armenia by the current government, but also manages the repressions in Armenia. About this 168 TVof Revue announced on the air of the program political scientist Hrant Mikayelyanthespeaking about the European summits held in Yerevan this week and the European leaders not addressing the human rights situation in Armenia.

First of all, the political scientist is very interested in the assessment of lawyers on the question that Nikol Pashinyan, with his statement today, formulated a problem in the National Assembly that the three opposition forces, “Strong Armenia”, “Armenia” alliance and PAP, do not overcome the necessary electoral threshold to enter the parliament, how many articles of the RA criminal code did he violate?

“With these statements, Pashinyan simply shows his intention that he should not hold elections, but should manipulate the electoral process in such a way that he wins, regardless of what the people want. Meanwhile, he used to announce that “if the people demand it, I will resign…” etc., but one line remained unchanged. In 2018, he declared: “If I don’t become the prime minister, Armenia will not have a prime minister”, and even now one of the slogans of his election campaign, which has already been posted on posters, is:

“There is no Armenia without Pashinyan.” In other words, they threaten to eliminate Armenia. This is how I understand it, because there is a question of removing Pashinyan, Pashinyan’s rating is quite low, and they say, “without Pashinyan, there is no Armenia.” And so, I think this situation shows that Pashinyan has really become a serious threat to Armenia and does not even realize what statements he is making, completely controlling the legal system and not realizing to what degree he violates all norms and the legal nature of the state,” commented Hrant Mikayelyan.

The political scientist adds that Pashinyan has received sociological data, according to which his rating is quite low, so he is taking various measures in order to ensure the re-election of his party, for example, large-scale bribery of the population is taking place in the country.

“They are trying to bribe everyone. For example, recently, 30,000 drams were distributed to 3,700 workers at the National Agricultural Research Service. Now is it an election bribe or not?” the interlocutor says.

Under the influence of the 8th European Political Community (EPC) summit held in Yerevan on May 4 and 5 and the inaugural Armenia-European Union summit, the topic of discussions on the issue of Armenia’s European integration and adopted as a result of the Armenia-EU summit joint declaration referring to the content, the political scientist emphasizes that the European Union does not have a proposal for Armenia, and the issue of Armenia’s membership in the EU is not really on the agenda. According to Mikayelyan, all these declaratory statements and beautiful wordings are made just to blow dust in people’s eyes and to show pre-election support to Nikol Pashinyan.

The political scientist also emphasizes that the most important task of Armenia is to ensure the security of the state, and the European Union cannot ensure the security of Armenia.

“This event was mainly of a propaganda nature, so that Pashinyan would be re-elected, because, for example, two years ago in Great Britain, a similar event, the summit of the European Political Community, was held in July. Who prevented this event from being held, for example, on July 15? In that case, no one would say that the European Union interferes in the affairs of Armenia,” says Hrant Mikayelyan.

According to the political scientist, Armenia has already become a stage of geopolitical struggle, and it contains serious dangers. The political scientist makes this assessment in connection with the holding of the European summits and all the noise surrounding them.

“Undoubtedly, Armenia is already a stage of geopolitical struggle. Firstly, independently of his will, because since 2014, when the conflict between the West and Russia became an undeniable reality, Armenia’s complementary foreign policy became very problematic, and it was almost impossible to maintain it, and so to speak, maintaining an independent political course required certain other steps, which are already overdue. Anyway, the fact that Armenia has become a theater of geopolitical struggle, I can list some of its consequences. The first, the so-called “velvet revolution” of 2018 is a consequence of the geopolitical struggle.

Second, the loss of Artsakh in the 2020 war is also a consequence of the geopolitical struggle. Thirdly, the ongoing economic pressures of Russia on Armenia. We still have a lot to lose and a lot to preserve, somewhere to rediscover. It all depends on the right foreign policy…

All these steps presuppose a much different foreign policy than is practiced today. And to go, hunt for smiles or hunt for personal benefits – this is not state foreign policy, this is just a game of political theater”, Hrant Mikayelyan comments.

According to the prediction of the political scientist, if the possible change does not come from within the country, then it will be influenced by external processes. “Because this conflict we were talking about is getting worse and worse…”

Full interview in the video.

—