In Arabkir administrative district, in the cases of severe physical pain caused as a result of regularly exerted physical influence on a 1-year-old child from January 22 to March 10, 2026 inclusive, as well as cases of illegal deprivation of life on March 15, the prosecutor initiated a public criminal prosecution against the second wife of the child’s father, according to Article 196, Part 2, Clause 3 and Article 44-155 of the Criminal Code. with clause 3 of part 2. This was reported by the Prosecutor’s Office.

A motion was filed with the court to elect custody as a restraining order.

On March 16, an extraordinary incident took place in Ararat region. After midnight, a boy was taken to the Yerevan “Arabkir” medical center with a diagnosis of “clinical death”. The police of Arabkir found out that the one taken to the hospital is Aleksan M., aged 1 year and 2 months, and according to operative information, the child was beaten by one of his parents. The child was abused by his stepmother.

The Investigative Committee reported that the investigation department of the RA Investigative Committee of the city of Yerevan in connection with the incident of violence against a child with the features of attempted murder. criminal proceedings have been initiated. During the preliminary investigation, 1 person was arrested. The child is still in the intensive care unit.

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The leader of Shirak Diocese, Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan, will continue to remain under house arrest, the Court of Appeal rejected the petition of the Holy Father’s defenders.

However, the bishop was allowed to participate in the Holy and Immortal Liturgies and receive Holy Communion.

Saint Michael was forbidden to celebrate Liturgy and give a sermon.

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The purpose of the Criminal Procedure Code, which entered into force on July 1, 2022, is to establish an effective procedure for conducting proceedings on alleged crimes based on guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of the person.

As such, the implementation of an efficient and quality pre-trial investigation stems from this very goal. It should be noted that the presence of somewhat problematic provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code, which has been in use for about three years, has created additional obstacles, which the draft law aims to eliminate. Rustam Bakoyan, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs of the National Assembly of the RA National Assembly, said this while presenting the “Amendments and Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia” at the regular session of the National Assembly on March 18. on” draft law.

The author of the initiative, Rustam Bakoyan, presented the proposed additions and changes and noted that as a result of the adoption of the project, it is expected to create additional prerequisites for the more efficient implementation of criminal procedure functions.

It was noted that the project will regulate specific time and procedural issues in criminal proceedings, which is aimed at effective, complete, comprehensive and objective examination of criminal proceedings. In addition, the project is also expected to create an opportunity for the body conducting the criminal proceedings to complete the proceedings within its jurisdiction within a reasonable period of time.

Deputy Minister of Justice Gevorg Kocharyan presented the Government’s positive opinion on the project.

The commission voted in favor of the initiative. It is planned to be included in the draft agenda of the upcoming regular sessions of the National Assembly.

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A project is circulating in Armenia, which envisages the abolition of notifications, the mandatory requirement to publish information resulting from documentary publications of a different nature in the print media.

The draft proposes to replace the mandatory publication requirement in the print media with the publication of public notices on the official website of “azdarar.am” or on the website of this or that organization.

According to Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan, this change is due to the development of information technologies and the fact that the print media has lost its previous distribution and role.

“The process of publication in the print media is quite expensive, all this leads to the actual limitation of information for the general public and additional costs, therefore, publications in the print media cannot currently be considered an effective or accessible way to disseminate information,” Galyan said at the session of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs.

According to the minister, the review of the existing regulations also stems from the need to harmonize the legal framework along with the development of information technologies.

The commission gave a positive conclusion to the package of drafts on making amendments and additions to the laws “On public and individual notification on the Internet” and attached.

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The Red Wings airline will start operating flights on the Orenburg-Yerevan-Orenburg route from June 4, the airline’s press service reports.

“The flights will be carried out by Russian SSJ-100 planes once a week during the summer season,” the message states.

The airline also informed that the departure from Orenburg will take place on Thursdays at 11:10, the duration of the flight to the capital of Armenia will be 3 hours and 5 minutes, and the return flight will depart from Yerevan at 14:05.

Orenburg has become the seventh city of the airline’s route network from which direct flights to Armenia are available. Red Wings currently operates flights to Yerevan from Sochi, Mineralnye Vody, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Chelyabinsk.

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Armenia’s exports and imports fell by 13.5% (y/y) and 11.2% (y/y) in January, respectively, after strong growth in the last two months of 2025.

This is mentioned in the “Armenia Monthly Economic Update – March 2026” report of the World Bank.

“Exports decreased as a result of a 45.1% decrease in precious and semi-precious stones, as well as a 69.1% decrease in household appliances, which was due to a decrease in re-exports. The export volumes of other product groups, such as semi-finished products (16% drop) and animal products (23.8% drop) were also reduced. The main positive contribution was provided by mineral products, the export of which increased by 43%,” the research notes.

WB analysts point out that imports decreased by 11.2%, again due to a 63.3% drop in precious and semi-precious stones, a 42.7% drop in home appliances, and a 25.7% reduction in vehicle imports.

The report notes that in January, excluding trade in precious metals and stones and household appliances, exports increased by 8% (y/y), while imports remained at the same level.

According to the RA Statistical Committee, in January 2026, Armenia’s foreign trade turnover amounted to 1.28 billion dollars, decreasing by 12% compared to January 2025, while exports amounted to 463.9 million dollars and imports to 811.8 million dollars.

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Chairman of the State Revenue Committee, Eduard Hakobyan, in a conversation with journalists, referring to the situation created around Iran and its influence on the Armenian-Iranian border, noted that the situation is under control.

“Actually, we are talking about the border, the Agarak crossing point, we don’t have any significant problems there at the moment. The following happens. we follow the dynamics every day, both of people’s movement and cargo movement. They are almost at the same levels as before.”

Referring to the possible difficulties, Hakobyan clarified that the problems are mainly related to logistics in the territory of the neighboring country.

“It’s just that sometimes there are queues, for example, there are queues, and we also hear from businessmen that there are logistical problems in Iran. In other words, the problems are more there.”

According to the SRC president, the customs processes on the part of Armenia continue without interruptions. “Regardless of that, if we approach the situation from the point of view of the statistics of our border crossings, no big risks have arisen there yet. The border and the border crossing point, the customs zone, are working normally without any significant problems,” said Eduard Hakobyan.

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Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia to Armenia (residence: Tbilisi) Edite Medne was hosted by the RA CEC on March 18. This is reported by the CEC.

“CEC President Vahagn Hovakimyan received the ambassador. Ambassador Medne was interested in the preparatory work for the upcoming national elections and offered the support of EU member Latvia.

The President of the Central Election Commission presented the legislative regulations and the schedule for the preparation of the main activities of the elections,” the announcement from the Central Election Commission said.

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