Category: News

The Chairman of the RA Investigative Committee, Artur Poghosyan, received Nazeli Sargsyan, the senior investigator of the Serious Crime Investigation Department of the Yerevan City Investigation Department, who took first place in the AK 103 rifle shooting sport during the 4th Army Games under the auspices of the RA Prime Minister, setting a record for the Army Games.

Artur Poghosyan congratulated the senior investigator, awarding him with a souvenir watch, and emphasized that this victory is the result of hard work and discipline.

—

The Competition and Consumer Interests Protection Commission initiated proceedings against 11 milk product producers as part of a large-scale investigation, based on the apparent existence of features of an offense against the interests of consumers.

Five of them, “Motkor Food”, “Ejmiadzin Cat”, “Hin Aparan”, “Ar-Tar” and “Amasiya’s leading cheese factory” LLCs, have accepted the recorded violations. Accelerated proceedings were applied to the latter, as a result of which a total fine of around 16.5 million drams was imposed.

According to the results of laboratory tests, it was found that the mass part of milk oil in a number of products of the above-mentioned companies was 5.4%, 15%, 25.5%, 18%, 1% and 0.9%, respectively, while according to the relevant technical regulations of the Customs Union, it should be at least 50%.

They are: “Motkor” brand, “Amasiya” brand name, “Chanak” brand name, Tasty Cheese brand name, “AT-arat” brand name products containing milk with milk fat substitute produced by “Chanak” cheese technology, Ejmiatsin Kat brand name, “Family” brand name, 18% fat and “Hin Aparan” brand name milk products containing milk fat substitute: produced by sour cream technology.

The remaining 6 proceedings are still under examination.

—

The demand for ID cards has increased. Nelly Davtyan, head of the migration and citizenship service of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced this during the press conference.

According to him, this is due to the declaration requirement. “In the first half of this year, we printed about 160,000 identification cards, while, for example, in 2024, we printed that many throughout the year.”

—

The crosses of St. Hovhannes churches in Hovhannavank and Artashat were stolen. “Pastinfo” was informed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs that reports were received from two churches about thefts yesterday.

“According to preliminary information, each church was damaged in the amount of 100,000 drams. The program was given a proper process, operative work is being done at the moment,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

—

During the preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings initiated in the Armavir Marz Investigation Department of the RA Investigative Committee, apparently factual data was obtained that on November 16, 2025, the candidates registered in the electoral list of the “Haghtanak” party, who participated in the municipal elections of Vagharshapat enlarged community, SD and NO, with a preliminary agreement with party supporters S.J., G.G. and A.K. and, complementing each other’s actions, on the day of the elections, they forced a number of residents of the community to participate in the elections and vote for the “Haghtanak” party.

During the preliminary investigation, by the decision of the supervising prosecutor, a public criminal prosecution was initiated against 5 persons, according to Article 210, Part 2, Clause 6 of the Criminal Code (obstructing the exercise of the rights or duties of the persons participating in the election by prior consent by a group of persons).

Alternative measures of restraint were applied to them.

The criminal proceedings were sent to the supervising prosecutor with an indictment.

Notice: the person accused of a crime is considered innocent until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure established by the Code of Criminal Procedure, by a legally binding verdict of the court.

—

In the first half of 2026, 2,937 citizens of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union officially worked in Armenia. This is noticeably more than a year ago, when the corresponding figure was about 2.5 thousand people.

The data was presented on August 14 by Nelly Davtyan, Acting Head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to him, there are simplified rules of residence and employment for the citizens of EAEU countries. they are not required to apply for a visa or obtain a separate immigration status, it is sufficient to confirm the fact of employment with a relevant document.

The statistics of migration movements also showed noticeable precedents. In the first half of 2026, the number of citizens who arrived in Armenia exceeded the number of those who left by 1,347.

In the similar periods of the previous two years, the balance was the opposite. the number of departures exceeded the number of arrivals by more than 20 thousand. Against this background, the transition to a positive balance becomes one of the most noticeable changes in the country’s migration statistics.

During the first six months of the year, 871,409 citizens of Armenia crossed the state border. At the same time, 57,953 cases of border crossing by foreign citizens were registered.

An even more significant dynamic is observed in the field of formulating the right of temporary residence. During the reporting period, 9,534 people submitted relevant applications, and more than 6,000 applications received a positive solution.

According to Davtyan, both indicators, both the number of applications and the number of satisfied applications, exceed the indicators of previous years by about three times. This means that the number of people interested in staying in Armenia for a longer period of time and formulating the appropriate legal status has significantly increased.

In parallel, the number of granted permanent residence permits also increased. 2,085 people received such a status, which is also significantly higher than the indicators of previous years.

The asylum procedure remains a separate direction. In the first half of 2026, 358 relevant applications were received by Armenian bodies. A positive decision was made regarding 94 of them, while in half of the discussed cases the applicants were rejected.

According to the head of the Migration and Citizenship Service, the reform of the State Register continues in Armenia. The changes should refer to the system of recording and managing data related to population and migration processes.

The presented indicators show that the migration statistics of Armenia in 2026 are developing in several directions at once. the number of officially working citizens of EAEU countries is increasing, the balance of entry and exit of citizens of the country is changing, as well as the number of applications for temporary and permanent residence status is increasing sharply.

—

In the previous message, I presented my thoughts on charity. Now I want to share my thoughts about business. PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

In particular, he noted: “I was established from scratch, without any influential friends, inherited capital. I started with a small business, I went through all the difficulties. I say this for one simple reason. I know the entire content of Armenian business first hand.

I say confidently. the business class played an exceptional role in the establishment, success and development of the Republic of Armenia.

From the very beginning of independence, from the stage of enormous difficulties in the 90s: blockade, dangerous roads, collapse of the economic system, financial crisis, war, it is largely thanks to the talent, hard work and patriotism of our businessmen that Armenia withstood the trials and took the path of development.

Our businessmen achieve incredible success in different parts of the world, enjoy respect and prestige.

I have publicly said many times that the backbone of Armenia is the small and medium business. The stronger this class is, the more it has the opportunity to develop, the stronger our country will be. And it is the task of the state to help this layer with the right economic policy.

I’ve also said that it can take years to build a business, it can take years of hard work, but it can take months, if not weeks, to break even.

I especially want to talk about foreign, export markets. In today’s world, no one waits for anyone. Finding a market, adapting is an extremely difficult task. Product quality and price are certainly important, but personal connections, trust, and established relationships are also important.

Now many of our exporters are facing serious problems. It is a big mistake to think that the issues will be resolved one day and the Armenian exporters will return to their traditional markets. Time does not stand still in business.

I warn you, everything is not so easy. Our places in the market are already occupied by others. They don’t even hide it, they do it openly and showily. Many Armenian products are now replaced by Azerbaijani products. I told about this process a month or two ago.

There are no permanent markets. If this continues, if the problems are not resolved, tomorrow Georgian, Azerbaijani, Moldovan, Uzbek and other countries producers will take the place of Armenian cognacs, wines, vodkas, cheese, fish, agricultural products, flowers, any other products. This is life, this is the cruel law of business.

And it should be well understood that this is not only the problem of businessmen. The loss of the consumer market will disrupt the entire cycle. Everyone will feel the consequences of this.

We really have a talented business class. I am always happy to communicate with representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. I know their worries and problems 100 percent. It is an indescribable pain for me to see the difficulties of this layer. I see the problems and many issues seriously concern me. I also see the solutions that will allow us to avoid the worst.

I put the political connotations aside.

The person who is being treated with obvious injustice speaks in me. Throughout my life, in my homeland, they try to present what I have created and built as unfair property. What I built was built from scratch, what I acquired was half-destroyed, half-demolished, and I built them into modern, highest-standard enterprises. Thank God, all the facts have been preserved. But in me now also speaks the person who made it from scratch, who at the beginning had nothing but his hard work and faith, and who, having gone through a very difficult path, achieved great success.

I understand very well what those exporters and businessmen feel, whose businesses, which they created from scratch, with the investment of their life and greatest effort, are facing the danger of destruction. Our state rests on these people, these people are the economic backbone of our country. Their benefit is the benefit of the whole country, their loss is the loss of all of us. The state should move with this awareness.

—

In the near future, the terms and values ​​of issuing biometric passports and identification cards will change in Armenia. Nelly Davtyan, acting head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, informed about this.

According to him, the cost of biometric passports issued until the beginning of 2024 was 25 thousand drams, while the cost of a new biometric document will be 28 thousand 650 drams. The new identification card will cost AMD 5,950.

According to Davtyan, the new biometric passport with its security components is fully competitive at the international level and meets the highest standards of the European Union. A passport will be issued for a period of 10 years, and an identification card for a period of 5 years.

With the new regulations, even minors under 16 years of age will be able to get an identification card with the consent of their parents. At the same time, after the new law “On Identity Documents” comes into force, it will be mandatory to have an identification card from the age of 16. According to Davtyan, the law is planned to be implemented by November 1.

The new passport will be issued to citizens who have an identification card. In other words, the presence of an identification card will become a prerequisite for obtaining a passport.

At the same time, there will be no requirement for citizens to immediately change the old sample documents. A person will have the opportunity to apply for a new biometric passport at will, regardless of the validity period of the current document. Even if a citizen recently received a passport of an old model valid for 10 years, he can immediately replace it with a new one if he wishes.

If the citizen decides to continue using the old sample document in the coming years, there will be no problems. However, from autumn, the state will no longer print documents of the previous model.

Therefore, if the old passport is lost, damaged or the citizen needs to get a new document for any other reason, he will already be issued a new sample biometric document.

—

Russia sees no grounds for half-hearted measures that would give Kiev a chance to breathe, said Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on Turkey’s proposal to stop hostilities in the Black Sea.

“Recently, Turkish Foreign Minister H. In an interview with the media, Fidan informed the Russian and Ukrainian parties about the transfer of the Turkish proposals on establishing a moratorium on military operations in the Black Sea. The Russian side did not receive an official Turkish application that would specify the conditions of this initiative through official channels.

If we are talking about 2022-2023. to the unilateral scheme, better known as the “Black Sea Initiative”, according to which Moscow had stopped military operations in the Black Sea, or rather, retaliatory steps to protect Russian port infrastructure and energy facilities, it is not advisable to return to this option. The condition for the implementation of the agreement was similar mutual measures from the other side, but they never followed.

At that time, if you remember, we agreed to a moratorium in exchange for access to world markets for Russian agricultural products. However, the West showed a dishonest approach. the humanitarian corridor we provided was widely used to carry out terrorist attacks against Russian civilian and military facilities, and Russian agricultural products remained under sanctions. This eventually led to the termination of the “Black Sea Initiative”.

At present, we are regularly faced with uncontrollable terrorist actions carried out by drones of the armed forces of Ukraine against civilian ships of coastal countries in the Black Sea, several times a month. We consider these attacks as a purposeful policy to destabilize civil shipping in the Black Sea region, with the aim of further aggravating the situation and prolonging the conflict, in the conditions of open negligence of the region’s neighbors. At the same time, we do not see any prerequisites for the improvement of the situation, and therefore, no basis for half-hearted measures, which only give the Kyiv regime a temporary breather.

We see that recently there have been frequent international calls for a ceasefire and the settlement of the situation around Ukraine, within the framework of well-known palliative schemes. Our attitude towards them and the problem in general has not changed. A stable, long-term settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is possible only if its primary causes are eliminated. First of all, it concerns the elimination of security threats caused by NATO’s eastward expansion and attempts to involve Kyiv in the North Atlantic Alliance. It is also important to achieve guarantees for the restoration and protection of the legal rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population in the territories that remain under the control of the Kyiv regime,” Zakharova noted.

—

More than 7,800 drivers who were deprived of their driving license in Armenia have recovered it with money.

As RA Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan stated during a press conference on August 14, 7,800 citizens have used it since the decision on the simplified procedure for restoring driving rights came into force. Let us remind you that we are talking about the restoration of rights by paying a certain amount, instead of passing exams.

Ghazaryan also informed about a number of changes in the procedure of passing the exams. A decision has already entered into force, according to which theoretical and practical exams can be taken in different places. In the near future, the question papers will be changed, and the questions will be different for the aspirants of ABC categories and others.

The questionnaires will be published, Ghazaryan added.

Let’s remind that about 18 thousand citizens can potentially be included in the scope of this norm. Most of them had their driving license revoked due to drunken driving or the exhaustion of penalty points. Restoring rights in a simplified manner costs AMD 50,000.

—