- Astghik Bedevian
- Gayane Saribekian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team played down on Thursday Armenia’s mounting tensions with Russia and the resulting risk of Russian sanctions that could cripple the Armenian economy.
Its key election challengers, notably former President Robert Kocharian, said, however, that the country will pay a heavy economic price if the ruling Civil Contract party wins the June 7 parliamentary elections.
Moscow stepped up its criticism of Yerevan on Wednesday, with the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, accusing Pashinian’s government of systematically taking hostile steps against Armenia’s traditional ally. It is seeking to join the European Union and increasingly siding with the EU against Russia on the international stage, Shoigu told an emergency meeting at the Kremlin that discussed the future of Russian-Armenian relations.
The meeting came just hours after Pashinian stated on the election campaign trail that he will refrain from any “drastic action” against Moscow. It was followed serious restrictions on the import of Armenian cut flowers announced by a Russian government agency.
The announcement raised fears of similar curbs on shipments of other Armenian goods to Russia, the South Caucasus nation’s main export market. There was also renewed speculation about a surge in the price of Russian natural gas currently set well below international levels. Russian officials have implicitly warned of such measures in recent weeks.
Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan, who is a senior member of Civil Contract, expressed confidence that the Russians will avoid such an escalation if Pashinian’s party wins the upcoming elections.
“I assure you that all this talk will end on the morning of June 8 when the Central Election Commission releases the [election] results and you see the vote of our people,” he told reporters. “And after that all issues will be closed.”
“We believe that the partnership [with Russia] will continue normally, and we are working in that direction,” Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said for his part.
Kocharian, who leads one of the three main opposition groups running in the elections, claimed the opposite as he campaigned in Armenia’s central Aragatsotn province.
“Yesterday’s reaction [by Russia] is a very bad sign,” the 71-year-old ex-president told supporters there. “I know that country very well. I can read between the lines of what officials there are saying. What they are saying is, ‘Dear Armenians, you have a problem with your government.’”
“If they ban other agricultural products tomorrow what will those poor people [producing them] do?” he said. “For example, what will those who have taken loans, built greenhouses to grow flowers and export them to Russia do? Let [Pashinian] arrange for them sell those flowers in France.”
“It’s not just Russian policy. This is how things are done around the world. They set more favorable [trade] regimes for friendly countries and different regimes for non-friendly countries. Now Russia is saying, ‘You want to get chummy with our enemies. What do you expect from me?’” added Kocharian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Pashinian on April 1 that the Armenian government’s moves to eventually join the European Union are “not compatible” with Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which gives Armenian exporters tariff-free access to Russia’s market. Pashinian made clear afterwards that Yerevan will continue to strive for EU membership. During the ongoing election campaign, he has branded his main challengers as Russian spies.
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Pashinian Announces Treason Case Against Opposition Leader
- Naira Bulghadarian
Sparking more accusations of abuse of power, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has announced that Armenian law-enforcement authorities will file a high treason charge against one of the opposition leaders challenging him in next month’s parliamentary elections.
“Tomorrow, the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia will send a crime report to the Investigative Committee … expecting that a criminal case will be initiated against Andranik Tevanian on a treason charge,” Pashinian said late on Wednesday during a campaign trip to the northern Lori province.
“We will finally and completely eradicate this spy network from the Republic of Armenia,” he added without giving any details of the criminal case.
The NSS refused to comment on the case or its actions. For its part, the Investigative Committee told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday afternoon that it has not yet received a relevant report from the NSS.
Tevanian, who is second on the list of election candidates nominated by businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), vehemently denied Pashinian’s allegations and accused the premier of issuing illegal orders to the law-enforcement agencies.
“I don’t have any information regarding me,” he told a news conference. “I assume that they are going to launch some processes. They are probably fabricating the case right now.”
In a separate statement, the BHK likewise accused Pashinian of ordering investigators to prosecute Tevanian on trumped-up charges. The development is “unprecedented in Armenia’s electoral history,” it said.
Under Armenian law, election candidates cannot be prosecuted without the Central Election Commission’s permission.
Pashinian has repeatedly branded his principal election challengers as Russian spies and pledged to “take out” them on the campaign trail. He accused Moscow on Tuesday of “sending agents to Armenia.”
The BHK and alliances led by former President Robert Kocharian and Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian are widely seen as the main opposition contenders in the June 7 elections. Their leaders claim that with his vicious attacks on them Pashinian is exposing his fears of losing power.
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RFE/RL – Karabakh Activist Remanded In Custody After Row With Pashinian
An Armenian court refused to free on Thursday an exiled activist from Nagorno-Karabakh who was arrested after publicly arguing with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and being insulted by the latter in Yerevan on Monday.
Pashinian was approached by Artur Osipinian as he campaigned in the city’s northern Arabkir district for the June 7 parliamentary elections. Osipian asked him questions and criticized his policies on Karabakh, sparking a furious reaction from him.
Moments after his supporters and bodyguards dragged away Osipian, Pashinian picked up a megaphone and rushed towards the Karabakh Armenian man, shouting insults and threats also addressed to “Karabakh pseudo-elites.”
“You should have died when there was the Karabakh issue. Why are you alive at all, you scumbag?” cried the premier.
Osipian, who publicly campaigned against Karabakh’s last leadership before the region’s recapture by Azerbaijan, was arrested and indicted following the incident. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claimed that he disrupted public order and obstructed the ruling Civil Contract’s election campaign. It also charged him with calling for a violent attack on Pashinian in a social media post in March.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, more than a dozen Western-funded civic organizations rejected the accusations as “illegal, baseless and politically motivated” and demanded Osipinian’s immediate release. They insisted that he simply exercised his freedom of speech and never advocated violence.
The court ignored the appeal, allowing investigators to hold Osipian in pretrial custody for the next two months.
During his campaign tour of Arabkir, Pashinian also lost his temper after being confronted by several other disgruntled citizens. They inccluded Arpine Soghoyan, a gynecologist whose brother, senior military medic Hrant Papikian, went missing during the 2020 war in Karabakh. Soghoyan blamed Pashinian for her loss and accused him of having “stolen my fatherland.”
Pashinian responded by linking the middle-aged woman to the leaders of Armenia’s three main opposition groups and pledging to “take out” them. His outbursts drew strong condemnation from the opposition.
Aram Vartevanian, a senior representative of billionaire Samvel Karapetian’s Strong Armenia bloc, on Thursday petitioned Prosecutor-General Anna Vartapetian to order criminal proceedings against Pashinian. Vartapetian’s office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that it has forwarded the demand to the Investigative Committee. It made clear earlier that the prosecutors will not investigate the legality of what critics see as death threats voiced by Pashinian.
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Zulfugarov “accuses” Pashinyan of prematurely celebrating the victory of peace
May 21, 2026
During pre-election meetings, Nikol Pashinyan convinces RA citizens at every step of what a happy life he has given us. War fears from the 1990s have been overcome, peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is now established, because there is no shooting on the border, you just need to own the Pashinyan peace and the map of Armenia, which, according to the announcement, is 29,743 square kilometers.
It should be noted that on one occasion Pashinyan confess is that the occupied territories of more than 200 square meters are an integral part of it, and they have not been restored, and it is still a question of how much they will be restored.
Anyway, let’s assume that we actually have 29,743 square kilometers of territory under our control on the ground, which Pashinyan assures that he has also recognized Azerbaijan, because he himself has recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, although there have been and are other statements from Baku from time to time.
But is this a guarantee of concluding or confirming the final peace agreement, are the problems in the demarcation and demarcation process resolved, even if Pashinyan is ready to hand over the “enclave” villages? Of course not. And once again, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Tofik Zulfugarov “understands” about this from Baku.
Given to Azerbaijani minval.az in the interview he first noted that without amending the RA constitution and holding a corresponding referendum, it is premature to talk about a full peaceful settlement.
“The main thing for us is what will happen during the referendum, if it is announced at all,” the former official emphasized.
Then Zulfugarov referred to the propaganda assurances of official Yerevan and Nikol Pashinyan to recognize each other’s territorial integrity.
According to him, Yerevan is merely trying to present the fact of mutual recognition of the territorial integrity as the final fixing of the borders that are beneficial for it, although the process of demarcation and demarcation has not yet been completed.
“Well, Pashinyan is coming with that badge on his chest… They want to receive that “badge” – the mutual recognition of territorial integrity, and present it as the final recognition of all demands.” said the former foreign minister of Azerbaijan, adding that during the Soviet period, the administrative borders between the union republics were changed more than once, so “Especially which period’s borders should become the basis for future settlement, still remains a fundamental question.”
It should be noted that on various occasions Zulfugarov, in his words, tried to be a realist explain իրականությունը՝ «the concept of an internationally recognized border is applicable in the event that when neighboring states demarcate their borders, after which they sign a corresponding document, which means that the border is recognized by both states.”
“If such a process does not exist, then the concept of an internationally recognized border cannot be used in the case of this or that state that has unfinished processes related to this issue,” years ago. In an interview given to one of the Azerbaijani media, the Azerbaijani diplomat emphasized, adding that the UN recognizes the state and not this or that border, and that “The declaration of Alma Ata does not specify any coordinates of this or that border.” Naturally, the exclusion of the Declaration of Independence from the RA constitution was considered a condition for signing the peace treaty.
Referring to the “Trump’s Way” project, Zulfugarov stated that, for now, Armenia avoids concreteness and instead of discussing transit conditions, proposes to focus exclusively on demarcation issues.
“Instead of presenting the conditions under which transit of goods and people will be carried out, they say: let’s conduct delimitation and demarcation. And this is a sign that the Armenian side is trying to delay the process and fix its own interpretations of the future borders. In general, one should assess the situation without emotions, neither in a positive nor a negative light. The approach should be exclusively realistic. I am not a pessimist, I am a realist,” said the diplomat.
It should be noted that Nikol Pashinyan has stated that in the places where communication construction will begin, it is assumed and logical that demarcation and demarcation should take place in that area first.
And Zulfugarov a month ago had noted that Azerbaijan will continue to strive for the implementation of the “Zangezur Corridor” and it is not important whether it will be within the framework of the TRIPP project or the November 10 document or any other format, that is, the question remains open.
Regarding the border demarcation process, let us remind that during the meeting held in Aghveran on April 29, the border demarcation commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed and exchanged the draft texts of 3 guidelines on the procedure for demarcation works. Currently, the RA government at e-draft.am from May 15 to May 31, discussed the 3 guidelines, where the procedure for creating the demarcation map is presented, it is noted that the working map is created in the form of rectangular columnarization of the UTM projection in the WGS-84 coordinate system.
168.amis still last year reported, that Azerbaijan has switched to mapping its borders using the WGS-84 system and “production” of its own maps with the support of Turkey. We informed that it is from 2009 started The transfer of topographic and cadastral maps of the RA state scale series to the WGS-84 world coordinate system.
As for Baku, Aliyev’s political other, “Western Azerbaijan” to the program then let us inform you that on June 18-19, the “Return to Western Azerbaijan” conference-festival will take place in Ordubad, Nakhichevan, the organizers of which are the plenipotentiary representative of the President of Azerbaijan in Nakhichevan, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Nakhichevan State University and the “Western Azerbaijan” community.
In the part of the conference, scientists, researchers and public figures will present reports on the “historical” realities of “Western Azerbaijan”, the heritage and the prospects for the return of “Western” Azerbaijanis.
It should be noted that this is the third such conference, the second, however, անցկացվել է in 2024.
In other words, it is a fact that, by and large, peace does not change much in Aliyev’s plans, the problem is in delivery.
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Pashinyan begins to feel that the situation is difficult. can have catastrophic results
May 21, 2026
The pre-election campaign for the RA National Assembly elections to be held on June 7 has entered an active phase. 19 political alliances and parties have applied to participate in the elections, but according to forecasts, the main battle in these elections will be between the party led by Nikol Pashinyan, the CP, which is the current government, and three or four opposition forces. 168 TVof Revue speaking about the course of the pre-election campaign on the air of the program, civil technologist Vigen Hakobyan emphasizes that the main task of the opposition in these elections is to ensure a high percentage of voter participation.
The civil technologist also added that if 55-60 percent of citizens with the right to vote participate in the voting, then the chances of the government’s re-establishment will decrease significantly.
“This is elementary arithmetic. In general, what is the government, especially this government, which has already objectively tired the society?
Any government gets tired of a significant part of the society after a couple of terms. It is no coincidence that in almost all countries where the government is formed through electoral processes, they usually do not elect the same person for more than two terms, because it is objectively also a psychological problem.
In this sense, even if we consider that Nikol Pashinyan and his teammates are an “ideal” government that does their work with 100% efficiency, a significant part of the society will already want changes, but since this government can be rated diametrically opposite, it is not working efficiently, and the activities of its administration have had destructive consequences, therefore, objective assessments and the expectation of changes are also added to this,” commented Vigen Hakobyan.
According to him, with the participation of about 1.5 million people in the NA elections, Nikol Pashinyan’s electorate is not enough for re-election.
«If there is more than 55 percent participation in these elections, Nikol Pashinyan’s power is in serious danger. The higher the turnout, the more catastrophic the results can be for the governmentVigen Hakobyan thinks.
The political scientist continues. “That’s why Pashinyan turns the elections into a farce, a fight of tongues and tries to “disgust” the voters with his behavior, hate speech, insulting speeches and threats and make the election process less serious so that people do not go to the polls.
It is in this light that the civil technologist evaluates Nikol Pashinyan’s, to put it mildly, jerky behavior in recent days. According to Hakobyan, this is due to the fact that Nikol Pashinyan simply faced the reality, seeing the attitude of people during the campaign. According to the gas technologist, Pashinyan is beginning to feel that the situation is difficult.
«Nikol Pashinyan’s vocabulary, this hysteria, etc., etc. are due to this. Rude behavior is putting it mildly. In general, that vocabulary, behavior, dragging women, in my opinion, is a civilizational problem. The confrontation with reality is added to this, especially in big cities: Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor.
Its culmination was, of course, Arabkir Day. That day was literally stressful for Nikol Pashinyan. He begins to feel that the situation is quite serious, more serious than they imagined, and that’s where this jerky behavior comes from, losing control, I think spontaneous declarations of “I’m going to kill”, “I’m going to catch”, “I’m going to kill”, accusing everyone of being “treason” and “foreign agents”.“, commented the civil technologist.
According to Vigen Hakobyan, Nikol Pashinyan made a gross mistake, even a mistake of strategic importance, by losing his self-control.
«In any case, he really gave the opposition a chance, and the opposition should take advantage of those mistakes. Only the visual demonstration of all this can cause protestant moods among the same apathetic “coffee drinkers”, because here a civilized protest arises. For example, what happened in Arabkir was a civilized protest»։
Vigen Hakobyan also spoke about the topic of negotiations between the United States, China and Russia and the formation of a new world order, referring to both the Trump-Xi Jinping talks that took place in Beijing last week, as well as the official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China and the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.declaration on the creation of a multipolar worldto the signing.
Full interview in the video.
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“This is the first snowflakes of a wrong policy, it was not settled as a former pa
May 21, 2026
Florists in Armenia, in particular, small and medium-sized ones, will face a problem again from tomorrow, because the Russian Federation, “Rosselkhoznadzor”, restricts the import of flowers from Armenia, starting from May 22.
“Despite the guarantees provided by the RA Ministry of Education, quarantine plants for the Ministry of Agriculture continue to be found. During the importation of 96.2 million flowers and plants, 135 such cases were recorded, which is 77 percent of the total cases detected in the entire year 2025. noted “Rosselkhoznadzor”.
Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ashot Harutyunyan speaking about this problem, he noted that everyone knows where this problem comes from, i.e., it is the use of “soft power” and is a consequence of incorrect policies.
“Okay, let’s admit that there is such a problem, it means that they should have dealt with the departmental bodies in a purely professional manner, in a systematic way, especially since this problem is repeated from time to time. And if the problem is repeated from time to time, it means that there is a global professional failure, starting from the professional measures, which should be related to the protection of plants, and ending in terms of observing individual rules.
I repeat: the departmental bodies have failed, it is not necessary that all farmers and florists master the professional nuances, even more so, according to the legislation. These people should be given professional advice and support, the state should stand and support these people.” 168.amAshot Harutyunyan mentioned in a conversation with
According to him, individuals make big investments, but such issues will lead to big problems, and people, facing the fact, will go not only to bankruptcy, but also to economic destruction.
“It is an absolute failure, regardless of what the head of the departmental body will interpret or what he will say, this is about performing high-quality professional work, which is lacking at the moment, the functions are performed incompletely. The state should stand by its farmer in all respects.
There is a legislative and professional gap, at the same time, there is no appropriate support from the Government, finances have not gone in the right direction. This means that the funds saved by the state, the taxes received from pensioners and others, were unnecessarily wasted, instead of benefiting, they caused harm,” Ashot Harutyunyan emphasized.
According to our interlocutor, the problem is also related to interstate relations, on the principle of “you to me, I to you”.
“It is clear that declarations are made in different tones, in different places, from Armenia and Russia, without assessing the consequences. If such a thing is done on purpose, then the consequences will be borne by ordinary people – greenhouse owners, farmers. These are the first snowdrops of incorrect policy, the use of “soft power”. If the issues are not resolved by May 28, the tone is not changed, the EAEU regulations issues are not resolved, both behind the scenes and in the relevant meetings, at this moment, as a former official, I am warning that the consequences will be much more severe. And it will be even destructive for farmers and greenhouse owners,” Ashot Harutyunyan emphasized.
Let’s remind that after the Government session today, Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan, addressing the issue in a briefing with journalists, said that there are specialists from “Rosselkhoznadzor” in Armenia, who conduct studies in specific companies.
“Those are companies that were closed, if there is a positive conclusion, the possibility of export will be opened. I think they are current work situations, of course, I do not rule out that there are certain forces in Armenia that are trying to create a certain situation so that Armenian producers in Russia face problems. We receive such information regularly, but we are also able to solve such problems in parallel.” had noted he.
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A man lost his life for tearing the wallpaper? Zhanna Aleksanyan
May 21, 2026
168 TVof “Zara has a question” the guest of the program President of “Journalists for Human Rights” NGO, human rights defender Zhanna Aleksanyan is.
Some of Zhanna Aleksanyan’s emphasis during the interview are below:
- That person, the leader of our country, so to speak, no longer needs the law, the Constitution, because the entire law enforcement system has subjected him, and they have willingly obeyed. The law enforcement officers cannot do anything about this. that is, they can, but they don’t.
- The moral aspect is completely absent from the KP team, they broke those boundaries… For example, when we saw how the mothers in black, the relatives of the victims, were treated in “Yerablur”, that line, which had never been broken, was broken, that the mother of the missing person, the victim can be treated like this, can be dragged, can be subjected to violence, and cases can be initiated.
- They say that power is perversion, and absolute power is absolute perversion. this is exactly the case. Nikol Pashinyan decides entirely himself. The so-called law enforcement system does not exist, it is degraded, although, for example, the Prosecutor General probably feels flattered that he is degrading, and I see that he is constantly being degraded. For example, if you detain Artur Osipyan, what is that? An innocent man, openly… there is nothing, and they put that debate as the basis of the accusation. Or the case of Narek Karapetyan. Nikol Pashinyan deleted the presumption of innocence.
- I do not see that there is such a hybrid situation. The problem of getting rid of Russia, if your leadership has, say, a base in Gyumri, has Russian border guard troops, what are you fighting for? In other words, why don’t they withdraw those troops, why don’t they leave the EAEU… Yesterday, Nikol Pashinyan said that he has friendly relations with Putin, he complimented him. Pashinyan has been the most devoted to Russian politics, Russian-Turkish politics, so Pashinyan himself works for the Russians, and now you see, Armenia’s greatest dependence, as all experts report, is on Russia.
- Such a death in the pre-election period can have a very big impact on the pre-election period and the election process, and I think this silence was intentional, I have even heard opinions that the hate speech that Pashinyan spoke was the day after the death. I think Nikol Pashinyan was making noise so that the incident would be forgotten. I think that the international human rights organizations will definitely address this case in turn. A man lost his life for tearing a piece of wallpaper? He says he was aggressive, do you decide his aggressiveness? was aggressive, call 911 and how the police took him.
- After June 7, I want to wake up in an Armenia where they will fight for justice, but without blood.
Details in the video
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168: Pashinyan handed over Armenia to Azerbaijan. this is the scenario of the European elite
May 21, 2026
In the “Pressing” program Satik Seyranyan the guest political analyst Hakob Badalyan is
The main theses of the interview are below.
- This is the traditional campaign style for Pashinyan, and Prime Minister Pashinyan did not want and could not leave the opposition Pashinyan’s campaign style. The consumer of that content is his electorate, and he sells his style to them. This is his traditional way of doing things, but he switched from the original quiet tone to the traditional one because he realized that his peace is not for sale. He is solving the problem of maximum mobilization of the electorate, because he understands that his rating is such that he is far not only from the constitutional majority, but also from the numbers of 50% 1.
- Pashinyan is deliberately sharpening the Artsakh-Armenians thesis. During the metro incident, Pashinyan aggravated the situation when he realized that the person in front of him was a woman from Artsakh. He knows that he is not able to bring new votes for himself, so he does everything to keep his electorate, because he knows his electorate best.
- Nikol Pashinyan destroys moral layers. In the case of the soldier’s mother, who was burned in the free military shelter, we saw how the eyewitnesses of the incident treated her – zero sympathy. Such an immoral attitude is staged and encouraged:
- The Moldovan scenario was first used in Romania, which US Vice President Vance spoke about. This is the scenario of the European elite. Today, Europe’s relations with Georgia are quite complicated, because Georgia conducts its own national policy, Azerbaijan treats Europe as an equal, and in this case, Europe’s hope remains in Armenia, where it is possible to make political progress, taking advantage of the fact that Armenia now has a government for which staying in power has become a matter of life and death. Now, once again, Pashinyan is launching the robbery scenario, but it is already on the people the effect does not work. The role of Samvel Karapetyan is great here, he cannot be called a robber in any way. The application of the thesis of agents and spies under the European command remained. This is like a lifeline for Nikol Pashinyan:
- 2020 after the war, the architecture of state security collapsed in Armenia, and Armenia turned into a free zone, where players representing all geopolitical interests operate.
- Europe’s task today is to put itself in a position to be taken into account. The main discussions are taking place in the Russia-USA-China axis, and the fate of Europe will be decided in that triangle.
- The price of pleasing Europe is the Middle Corridor. Europe wants its share from Armenia. The main problem is that Armenia agrees to all the demands of Turkey and Azerbaijan and as soon as possible. Europe is now doing everything to make Armenia agree to receive its share of the Middle Corridor from Turkey and Azerbaijan.
- Practically everyone accepted that Armenia was handed over to Azerbaijan, and Nikol Pashinyan himself agreed to it, giving up Artsakh and meeting other demands of Azerbaijan. We can get out of this situation only if the government changes, because even if the current government decides to change something, not only it, but also Armenia will be hit hard, and Nikol Pashinyan cannot get out of it. Therefore, these are lucky elections, and if the government does not change, it is not known what will happen to Armenia in the next election cycle. When you’re ready to close an account, and the price of anything in the world is only going up, you can’t afford that price close, even with your indulgent politics. It is necessary to get out of the mindset that if you talk about your right, object to another state, then it is adventure, war and revanchism. This is sick thinking. This psychological terror of the society is also destroying the state, because if the society with that psychology even has a de jure state, then it is just a sign.:
- I strongly doubt that Pashinyan’s electorate is interested in bringing hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis to Armenia. And the authorities of Armenia will not talk about it, because they have given up the policy of opposing Aliyev in general.
- Let me remind you that even the declaration that Armenia agreed to the content of the text of the “Peace Treaty” was not made jointly by the two countries. Azerbaijan announced it first. After that, Armenia unilaterally agreed to dissolve the Minsk Group before signing the treaty. Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences is assigned to develop theses about “Western Azerbaijan”. A few days ago, Pashinyan announced that not only Armenians lived in Armenia. This is the adaptation roadmap:
To remind: During the campaign, Nikol Pashinyan often deliberately throws out wrong information. For example, a few days ago he announced in Spitak. “If we have to return to some place, we provoke that place so that they say: we are also returning here. Because it is a fact, we cannot say․․․ In the Republic of Armenia, 90 percent are Armenians. Never before were 90 percent Armenians. We should understand how happy we are with today’s situation, with today’s status quo,” Pashinyan said.
During the last census conducted in the USSR, in 1989, the number of Armenians living in the territory of the ASSR was more than the figure he said – 93.3 percent.
- The fact that Nikol Pashinyan considers not the simple majority necessary, but the constitutional majority is not just a matter of appetite. There are issues that, in his opinion, should be resolved by the constitutional majority. I do not rule out that Azerbaijan’s demand, the Declaration of Independence, will also be tried to be removed from the Constitution in that way, rather than through a referendum, which is an extremely difficult way.
- If Azerbaijan gets the enclaves, it will be a breakthrough in the territory of Armenia to get more later. If we add to this the demand to bring Azerbaijanis here, this is another breakthrough, because other demands will arise from it: positions for Azerbaijanis, a faction in the parliament, and other privileges with the consequences arising from them. Recently, one of the Azerbaijani experts in Yerevan announced that there was an Azerbaijani community in Armenia and it should have political rights. In the sense of the mechanisms, Azerbaijan will try to get guarantees for decades, so that any subsequent government will not be able to ignore these realities. Now Azerbaijan is thickening the trunk of the tree it planted, and if the government does not change, the processes will be irreversible.
- Any vote that will go to this government means taking responsibility not only for what will happen in the event of the resumption of the CP, but also for what happened before. Moreover, if people do not go to the polls, then they are passively voting for the situation not to change and taking responsibility for what has been in these 8 years and what will happen in the future. It is necessary to understand that Armenia is not faced with the task of changing the political system, but the task of not allowing the tree planted by Azerbaijan to grow so thick that you don’t know what will fall on your head from the leaves. I see the solution of the problem through the 4 leading opposition forces. It is not fair to say that this there is no political force to your liking in the election campaign.
- Unfortunately, in these years, a large layer of consumer society has formed among us, and this consumer psychology is widely used by the existing government. Armenia is simply turning into a household government. If big business thinks that if Armenia is annexed by Azerbaijan, there will be big business in Armenia, they are terribly mistaken. In this sense, the Armenian capital all over the world also has a commitment, and the role of Samvel Karapetyan is very symbolic and significant today, that he took such a heavy responsibility upon himself.
- When the government and quasi-authoritarian forces have made the foreign agency a daily topic, for some reason they refuse to adopt the “Foreign Agents” law, because then they can no longer manipulate the public.
- The society-opposition work regime should not be replaced by the opposition-government conflict regime. This is what Nikol Pashinyan wants. The opposition must not fall into traps. In any scenario, the opposition must continue to work with the public.
- Against the background of Russian President Putin’s visit to China, Nikol Pashinyan suddenly shows respect for Putin during the campaign. This aptly describes the state of affairs. In Astana, the topic of Armenia will be more of an occasion to discuss intra-Eurasian topics. I think both Russia and Pashinyan understand very well that Armenia has not and will not apply for membership in the European Union. There are no naive people at that level. I think that in principle, Russia has no problem with Pashinyan and does not see it. It is another matter that Pashinyan will be asked to pay a much higher price for re-election now, and Pashinyan will not be the one to pay. but the Armenian people. If on May 29 in Astana Nikol Pashinyan is asked to withdraw from the EAEU, that is the price that the Armenian people will pay for Pashinyan’s re-election.:
Details in the video.
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RFE/RL – Russia Curbs Flower Imports From Armenia
Russia has imposed “temporary restrictions” on the import of cut flowers from Armenia in another sign of mounting tensions between the two states.
The state agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor announced them late on Wednesday right after the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, met with other officials in Moscow to discuss the future of Russian-Armenian relations. Shoigu accused Yerevan of siding with the European Union against Russia and taking other hostile actions.
“Moscow cannot accept the line that the Armenian leadership is pursuing today; namely, the line that it will maintain membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) until, so to speak, it switches to membership in the European Union,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said after the meeting.
Rosselkhoznadzor attributed the restrictions, effective from Friday, to the presence of “quarantined objects” in flowers imported from Armenia. It said they will remain in place pending the findings of an ongoing sanitary inspection of Armenian flower greenhouses.
The Russian government agency already imposed such curbs last summer. Armenia’s Food Safety Inspectorate responded by stepping up sanitary controls and organizing video inspections of flower greenhouses for Rosselkhoznadzor.
The number of such greenhouses across the South Caucasus surpassed 700 flower last year, reflecting soaring flower exports to Russia. According to Rosselkhoznadzor, the physical volume of those exports surged by almost 50 percent to 52 million flowers in January-May 2025.
Russia is also the principal market for other agricultural products as well as alcoholic beverages exported by Armenia. Russian officials emphasize this fact in their warnings about economic consequences of the Armenian government’s European integration drive.
Meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Moscow on April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Yerevan can no longer combine that policy with its membership in the EEU guaranteeing Armenian exporters’ tariff-free access to the Russian market.
Later in April, Russian authorities suspended on sanitary grounds sales of Armenia’s most famous brand of mineral water. More than 1.3 million bottles of the water produced by Armenia’s Jermuk Group were reportedly taken off the Russian market pending an ongoing inspection of its quality.
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Europe’s Intensifying Interest in Armenia Signals Shifting Regional Dynamics
Bottom Line Up Front:
- In recent years, Armenia has become increasingly important to Europe because of its geopolitical position, its proximity to Iran, and its role in a widening contest with Russia, whose interference has destabilized the continent and now appears aimed at interfering in Armenia’s June 2026 parliamentary elections.
- As the EU’s other partnerships in the South Caucasus grow more complicated, with Azerbaijan continuing along an authoritarian path, and Georgia undergoing renewed democratic backsliding, Armenia has emerged as an increasingly important strategic partner for Europe.
- Armenia’s complex and unique security environment results in a more opaque and vulnerable influence environment compared to other post-Soviet States, where Azerbaijani and Turkish narratives may intersect or compete with Russian ones.
- Suspicious practices within the pro-European party and insecurity in the region underscore the need for the EU to prioritize building strong institutions — particularly at the local level — rather than making support for individual political figures the centerpiece of its response to Russian hybrid tactics.
On May 4 and 5, European leaders gathered in Yerevan for two landmark meetings: the European Political Community summit — which included Canadian representation, signaling Canada’s imperative to increase influence in the EU — and the first-ever EU-Armenia summit. Armenia’s geographical position as an alternative corridor to Central Asia, allowing EU countries to bypass Russia, along with its ability to serve as a buffer to neighboring Iran, and its willingness to deepen institutional relations with democratic countries, represent an opportunity for the EU. At the same time, Armenia is set to hold a critical parliamentary election on June 7 amid record levels of Russian hybrid activity across Europe. Like many recent elections across Russia’s former sphere of influence, the vote will serve as a major test of the country’s political trajectory: whether Armenia can withstand Moscow’s pressure to return to its orbit, or whether it will continue deepening its alignment with Europe and the West.
Armenian-Russian relations first became strained when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, leader of the Civil Contract Party, came to power in 2018 following the Velvet Revolution — a mass anti-corruption and democratic reform protest movement that ended nearly two decades of dominance by the Republican Party of Armenia. However, relations sharply deteriorated in 2023, when Azerbaijan took full control of the long-contested territory, Nagorno-Karabakh, despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers. At the time, Armenia was still a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security alliance that is believed to have been created as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After the takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan and his party felt that Russia (and the CSTO) had failed to uphold its security commitments to Armenia and froze its participation in February 2024.
Throughout Yerevan’s fraying relations with Moscow, Pashinyan tilted closer to Europe and the EU. In 2024, the EU officially launched a visa liberalization process with the country. In 2025, the ruling Civil Contract party signed the EU integration Act into law, mandating the government to pursue EU integration even though it is still in the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) phase, meaning it must still work to implement democratic and anti-corruption reform before it can become an official EU candidate.
Yet the upcoming parliamentary election could jeopardize this deepening relationship — one that matters not only to Yerevan, but increasingly to Brussels. As the EU’s other partnerships in the South Caucasus grow more complicated, with Azerbaijan continuing along an authoritarian path, and Georgia undergoing renewed democratic backsliding, Armenia has emerged as an increasingly important strategic partner for Europe in a region that serves as a critical energy corridor, especially as one of the few viable routes for trade, energy, and connectivity that can bypass Russian and Iranian controlled or influenced routes. Loss of access to the South Caucasus would narrow Europe’s options for reaching the Caspian and Central Asia, weaken efforts to diversify energy and supply chains away from Russia, while also leaving greater space for Moscow, Tehran, Ankara, and Beijing, all of which have historic ties and influence in the region, to shape its political and economic future. At a time when the EU is seeking to define its role in great-power competition amid strained relations with the United States, this dynamic is incredibly important.
Armenia’s moves toward normalization with Türkiye and Azerbaijan have also intensified European attention. If implemented, normalization — along with the prospect of the U.S.-facilitated Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) — could reopen routes that have been closed for decades and reshape regional connectivity across the South Caucasus. For years, peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan was Brussels’ primary concern regarding Yerevan, often overshadowing deeper EU interest in Armenian domestic politics, especially compared with Georgia and Azerbaijan. But as Georgia and Azerbaijan become less viable partners for Europe, the EU has thrown its support behind Pashinyan and the Civil Contract Party ahead of the upcoming elections, echoing the backing it showed Moldova’s pro-European forces during elections that were also heavily targeted by Russian interference.
That support comes as recent reporting has highlighted the scale of interference in Armenia’s upcoming election. Research from the Yerevan-based Regional Center for Democracy and Security (RCDS) has found that Moscow is deploying many of the same tools it used during Moldova’s 2024 presidential and 2025 parliamentary elections, such as disinformation campaigns, political influence operations, and efforts to exploit social divisions. Leaked Russian documents show that these tactics include the creation of misleading or fake institutional and media websites — part of the broader “Doppelganger” tactic observed across multiple countries — fake stories targeting pro-European leaders, Diaspora-influence operations, and the mobilization and payment of influencers, all tactics that have also been observed in Moldova, and are discussed at length in The Soufan Center’s latest report.
However, the RCDS researchers found that Armenia presents a distinct and potentially more vulnerable environment. Unlike Moldova, which has spent years building institutional, legal, civil-society, and media responses to Russian information manipulation, Armenia’s experience with Russian disinformation campaigns is more recent, only intensifying after Pashinyan’s transition into power, and accelerating in 2023. The Armenian public is therefore less inoculated than the Moldovan public against Russian information operations, and its institutions are less experienced and developed in countering such tactics. Armenia’s economic reliance on Russia is also still more entrenched than Moldova’s in recent years, as it is still a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Armenia’s security anxieties are also sharper after years of conflict with Azerbaijan. Its inclination towards the EU is driven more by these anxieties rather than a focused goal of complete EU integration like that in Moldova. This more complex security environment also results in a more opaque influence environment, where Azerbaijani and Turkish narratives may intersect or compete with Russian ones.
Nevertheless, Pashinyan is still a front-runner in the upcoming elections even though his party is not expected to win the two-thirds majority needed to pass constitutional reform required to officially normalize relations with Azerbaijan. Public opinion in Armenia also reflects the complicated political and economic considerations at play in this election. A poll by the International Republican Institute (IRI) found that 72 percent of Armenians either strongly or somewhat support “possible accession to the European Union.” Only 24 percent of Armenians somewhat or strongly oppose accession. However, this does not seemingly translate into a desire for a clean break with Russia. 43 percent of Armenians view Russia as their country’s most important political partner. 42 percent named the U.S., while only 29 percent named the European Union. In other words, while many Armenians are increasingly favorable toward Europe, they remain aware of the country’s economic dependence on Russia. As a result, much of the public appears to favor a careful balancing strategy: deepening ties with the EU without provoking a rupture with Moscow that could carry immediate costs for Armenia’s economy, energy security, or regional stability.
At the same time, Pashinyan remains a polarizing figure in Armenian politics. His normalization policy toward Azerbaijan and Türkiye has drawn sharp criticism from opponents who argue that he has conceded too much in the name of peace, particularly after the influx of Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh who were ethnically cleansed from the territory in 2023 after Azerbaijan’s takeover. Some Armenians also believe his government mishandled the political and humanitarian aftermath, including the resettlement and integration of displaced Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. Videos of tense exchanges with citizens, including displaced Armenians, have gone viral on social media. Indeed, the country remains split on the implementation of normalization policies, such as the TRIPP. 44 percent of respondents to the IRI poll support the implementation of the corridor, while 47 percent oppose it.
While Pashinyan was thrust into power in 2018 on a popular anti-corruption wave, his reform record has since come under scrutiny. Freedom House has noted slow progress on anti-corruption and judicial reform. It noted that successful corruption prosecutions were rare and that the resignation of six senior judicial officials at the Prime Minister’s request raised “concerns about judicial independence.” At the same time, an OCCRP/CivilNet investigation raised questions about irregular donations to the Civil Contract party, including cases where listed donors denied making contributions, and donations appeared to exceed legal limits. Among the prominent politicians listed as running in the parliamentary elections, Pashinyan was the most trusted at about 20 percent. However, 48 percent of Armenians said they did not trust any politician.
As analyst Thomas de Waal has noted, the EU must therefore tread carefully in its support for Pashinyan and his party. While our research at The Soufan Center has highlighted the importance of Western backing in countering Russian hybrid tactics and election interference across Moscow’s traditional sphere of influence, it has also underscored the need to help foster strong institutions — not only at the national level, but locally as well. Many experts argue that one of the shortcomings of U.S. and European support for Georgia was an overreliance on pro-Western political leadership without sufficient investment in durable democratic institutions, a vulnerability that has contributed to the country’s current democratic backsliding.
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