May 7, 2026
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
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168: The European Union manages repression in Armenia. Hrant Mikayelyan
May 7, 2026
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.
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RFE/RL – Armenia And The Disappearing Mountain
Armenia And The Disappearing Mountain
May 06, 2026 14:48 CET
- By Amos Chapple
Khor Virap Monastery, with Mount Ararat, known in Turkish as Mount Agri, in the background Photo: Amos Chapple (©)
Something seems to be missing from Armenia’s new biometric passport. That’s according to many in the country, who have flagged an unusual image in the document.
Among pages showcasing Armenia’s heritage and culture is a picture of Khor Virap. The 17th century monastery is famous largely for its spectacular backdrop of Mount Ararat. In the passport, however, the monastery is depicted from an angle showing only nondescript mountains on the horizon. Critics have called the unusual image a “ploy” to avoid including Ararat in the official document.
Mount Ararat is situated inside Turkey and officially known by its Turkish name Mount Agri, but the landmark rises prominently above Yerevan on clear days.
The 5,100 meter mountain was a part of ancient kingdoms of Armenia, but ethnic Armenians were driven from settlements around Ararat amid the Ottoman state-led killings, which have been recognized as genocide by dozens of countries including the United States. When borders in the region were redrawn following World War I, Ararat’s twin peaks were included within the eastern edge of modern Turkey.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian recently hinted at the controversy over the passport depiction of Khor Virap, saying during a live stream with Interior Minister Arpine Sargsian that, “we’ve chosen such a perspective to suit our policies and what we have discussed for a long time.”
“Given it is the passport of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian added, the passport reflects “the territory of the Republic of Armenia.”
The absence of the mountain in the passports, which are set to be rolled out in the fall of 2026, follows a government decision late last year to remove snow-capped icons of Mount Ararat from passport stamps. That decision led to an uproar in the country, including a lawsuit filed against the government.
Opposition politician Hayk Mamijanian condemned the removal of the mountain from passport stamps at the time, telling reporters “it never ceases to amaze how zealously Pashinian is ready to please Turkey or Azerbaijan.”
Since Azerbaijan’s military recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023, Armenia has sought to normalize relations with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey, both historic foes of Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan initialled a peace agreement in 2025 that includes a clause indefinitely forbidding either country from making territorial claims on the other. Turkey, a close ally of Baku, has long objected to Armenia’s use of Ararat as a national symbol, including in the coat of arms of the Soviet Republic of Armenia.
Joshua Kucera, a senior analyst for International Crisis Group, says the Khor Virap image appears to be, “part of the larger ‘real Armenia’ narrative that [Pashinian] is promoting, trying to refocus Armenians’ attentions to the issues within their own borders rather than ‘historical Armenia’ outside its borders.”
The Caucasus expert says that reframing effort also includes the recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
Some fear a more consequential target for the Pashinian government could be the current Armenian coat of arms, which features Ararat as its centerpiece, topped with Noah’s Ark. The mythical vessel is believed by some Christians to have settled atop Mount Ararat following the biblical flood. In 2023, Pashinian criticized the emblem for representing “a dichotomy between historical Armenia and real Armenia.”
Edmon Marukian, a politician and former ally of the Armenian prime minister, called the 2025 erasure of Mount Ararat from passport stamps a potential precursor to Armenia’s coat of arms being remade. “Removing [Ararat] would require changing the constitution and the law,” the politician noted, adding, “are we, as citizens, ready to tolerate this?”
In April, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service asked Pashinian about the potential for Ararat to be removed from the coat of arms. The prime minister responded only that “I am not raising such a question.”
RFE/RL – Pashinian To Skip Victory Day Parade In Moscow
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appears to have snubbed a Russian invitation to attend the upcoming military parade in Moscow dedicated to the 81st anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
Russia’s ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that Pashinian is among the leaders of “fraternal countries” invited to the May 9 parade. Kopyrkin said he does not know whether Pashinian will travel to Moscow.
Pashinian announced later in the day that he and senior members of his Civil Contract party will be in Armenia’s Syunik province on May 8 and May 9 to campaign for next month’s parliamentary elections.
The Armenian premier, who attended last year’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, most recently visited the Russian capital on April 1 for what turned out to be tense talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter warned Pashinian against disqualifying Armenian opposition forces from the June 7 elections. Putin also warned of severe economic consequences of Yerevan’s continued efforts to join the European Union.
Pashinian reaffirmed the pro-Western tilt in Armenia’s foreign policy during a European Political Community summit and a separate EU-Armenia summit held in Yerevan earlier this week. He made clear on Tuesday that he will keep seeking EU membership if his party wins the upcoming polls.
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Armenian Speaker Accuses Russia Of Plotting Power Grab In Armenia
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian has accused Russia of using Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections to try to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government.
Simonian, who is a leading member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, first made the accusation in a weekend interview with Armenian state television.
“While in Ukraine they are trying to advance their interests through military means, in Armenia there is an attempt at a political operation, an attempt to seize power,” he claimed. “Now they are trying to use our democracy against us. They say, ‘The Internet is free in your country, we will buy so much advertising on that Internet with our rubles that it will be ours.’”
“We will not allow the Republic of Armenia to be turned into a ‘gubernia’ (a Russian province), we will not be governed like Belarus,” he said.
Moscow has still not reacted to the accusations, unlike the Belarusian Foreign Ministry that summoned the Armenian charge d’affaires in Minsk on Tuesday to hand him a protest note against Yerevan’s “latest unfriendly actions.” Also, a ministry spokesman described Simonian’s jibe as “pre-election populism.”
The Armenian speaker stood by his claims on Wednesday, telling reporters that “the example of Belarus’s governance is unacceptable to my country.”
“An attempt to seize power is underway,” he said in another attack on Moscow.
Simonian’s statements came right before and after two European summits in Yerevan seen by the Armenian opposition as a pre-election show of support for Pashinian and his party. Opposition leaders also claim that Pashinian keeps dragging Armenia into the West’s geopolitical standoff with Russia and thus adding to the country’s grave security challenges.
Meeting with Pashinian in Moscow on April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin implied that Armenia would pay a heavy economic price for its government’s continued drift to the European Union. Putin also warned Yerevan against barring what he called pro-Russian opposition groups from running in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
The three main opposition election contenders are led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, former President Robert Kocharian and another wealthy businessman, Gagik Tsarukian. Pashinian’s political allies have branded them as Russian agents.
Pashinian sought to downplay Russian-Armenian tensions following his most recent talks with Putin. Simonian’s remarks could reignite them.
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Another Former Karabakh Leader Makes Defiant Statement From Azeri Jail
Davit Ishkhanian, one of the eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh jailed in Azerbaijan, condemned their trials and urged Armenians to stay “strong” in a statement circulated through his family on Wednesday.
Ishkhanian also effectively joined fellow prisoner Ruben Vardanyan in calling on Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, to visit them and the other captives in an Azerbaijani prison. He said Manasian would thus receive more information about “blatant violations” of human rights and international law which he said occurred during the trials and criminal investigations that preceded them.
“As for these difficult times, I can only wish our people strength of spirit, will and unity, and I must say: be strong,” added the statement.
The former Karabakh Armenian leaders were captured right after the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s Armenian population to flee to Armenia. They all denied a long list of war crimes charges levelled against them. An Azerbaijani military court sentenced five of them, including Ishkhanian, to life imprisonment and gave Vardanyan and the two others 20-year jail sentences in February this year at the end of two trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.”
Ishkhanian, who served as Karabakh’s parliament speaker, cited the following excerpt from his concluding remarks at his trial which he said were cut short by the presiding judge: “This trial was opened not against 15 persons, this trial was opened against the Armenian people and the Armenian statehood with clear aims and a long-term strategy.”
Ishkhanian also asked Manasian to try to obtain the full text of the guilty verdict against him and share it with his family in Armenia. He said he handed in the same request to the Azerbaijani ombudswoman, Sabina Aliyeva, when she visited him in prison on Tuesday.
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, appealed to Manasian in a statement released by his family on April 21. The prominent businessman urged her to ask Azerbaijani authorities for permission to visit the prisoners together with their relatives. The human rights defender responded by saying that she has no mandate to inspect prison conditions in Azerbaijan or any other foreign nation.
Vardanyan, who has repeatedly made defiant statements during his captivity, also accused Armenia’s government of being indifferent to the fate of the 19 Armenian prisoners held by Baku. The government has still not officially reacted to the trials, stoking opposition allegations about its complicity in their continuing captivity. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure their release.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again branded the Armenian prisoners as “war criminals” when he addressed on Monday a European Political Community summit in Yerevan via video link. Pashinian did not respond to Aliyev, drawing strong criticism from the Armenian opposition.
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Russia Rages At Armenia Over EU Summit, Zelenskyy Visit
Armenia will pay “political and economic” consequences for siding with the European Union against Russia, Moscow said on Thursday in its first reaction to European summits held in Yerevan earlier this week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry was particularly outraged by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s participation in one of those summits and his implicit threats to disrupt the upcoming Victory Day parade in Moscow with long-range drone strikes.
“Russian society, with deep indignation and bewilderment, not only saw but, above all, remembered the fact that Armenia, which we are accustomed to considering a friendly, fraternal country, served as a platform. For whom? For a terrorist,” the ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told a weekly briefing.
“And no one in Armenia’s current leadership rebuked Zelenskyy,” Zakharova said.
Zelenskyy met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on the sidelines of Monday’s European Political Community (EPC) summit attended by dozens of EU leaders. He said afterwards that Kyiv and Yerevan are “resuming an active dialogue between our countries.”
The EPC gathering was followed by a separate EU-Armenia summit between Pashinian and the EU’s two top officials, Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen. The latter declared that the EU’s ties with the South Caucasus nation traditionally allied to Russia are now “closer than ever.”
“After reading the final declaration of the so-called Armenia-EU summit, it becomes clear that the republic, with the approval of its leadership, is being increasingly drawn into alien, aggressively Euro-Atlantic standards and mechanisms,” charged Zakharova. “This course of action by the Armenian authorities will sooner or later lead to Yerevan’s irreversible involvement in Brussels’ anti-Russian line, with all the ensuing political and economic consequences for Armenia.”
“Armenia is included in the plans for the militarization of Europe,” the Russian official said without elaborating.
Zakharova went on to claim that Pashinian thus reneged on his pledge to “take no steps against Russia” given to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their April 1 talks in Moscow.
The talks were marked by Putin’s public warnings to Yerevan. Armenia would pay a massive economic price for its government’s continued drift to the EU, Putin implied, noting its heavy dependence on Russia for trade and energy.
Pashinian sought to downplay Russian-Armenian tensions in the following weeks. But one of his top political allies, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, accused Moscow on May 2 of trying to topple Pashinian’s government through Armenian opposition groups running in the June 7 parliamentary elections. Zakharova dismissed the accusations, saying that Simonian made very different statements when he visited Moscow in February.
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Ruben Vardanyan Steps Up Criticism Of Armenian Government
Ruben Vardanyan, a prominent businessman remaining in Azerbaijani captivity along with at least 18 other Armenians, has stepped up his accusations that Armenia’s government is indifferent to the fate of the prisoners.
“The government of Armenia has failed to establish any sustainable and coherent mechanism for communication with them — neither through third-party countries, including the embassies of states with a presence in Baku, nor through international organizations,” Vardanyan said in his latest statement conveyed to his family by phone.
“Why? Why can Armenian officials travel to Azerbaijan on trade, economic, and other matters, but cannot organize a visit concerning the lives, health, and legal situation of Armenian captives? Is the fate of these people not more important than trade negotiations?” he asked.
Vardanyan said that many of the prisoners “have no adequate clothing and no way to receive what they genuinely need.”
“Instead, whatever assistance does reach them is organized informally, without transparency, and without regard for the actual needs of the detainees … When people who have no teeth are sent dried fruit, that is not help. That is humiliation,” he said.
“Have you no shame?” he went on, appealing to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. “Is there no shame in receiving a peace prize [in the United Arab Emirates,] speaking of peace, and accepting applause while citizens of Armenia remain in Baku’s prisons without proper protection, systemic support, assistance or oversight from their own state?”
Vardanyan, who held the second-highest post in Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership from November 2022 to February 2023, similarly criticized Pashinian’s government in his previous statement from an Azerbaijani jail circulated by his family on April 21. He also called on Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, to try to visit the Armenian prisoners together with their relatives.
Manasian responded by saying that she has no mandate to inspect prison conditions in Azerbaijan or any other foreign nation. She reiterated her position in the Armenian parliament on Thursday.
“If the protection of Armenian citizens held in Azerbaijani prisons does not fall within the mandate of Armenia’s human rights defender, then whose mandate is it?” countered Vardanyan.
Vardanyan was arrested at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor in September 2023 as he fled the region along with its practically entire ethnic Armenian population. Seven other former Karabakh Armenian leaders were also arrested during the exodus that followed an Azerbaijani military offensive.
Five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment while the two others as well as Vardanyan received 20-year jail sentences in February at the end of yearlong trials denounced by Amnesty International as a “travesty.” They all denied a long list of accusations brought against them.
Pashinian and other Armenian officials insist that Yerevan has been doing its best to try to secure the release of the prisoners. Their critics dismiss these assurances. They accused the Armenian premier of actually helping Baku legitimize Vardanyan’s imprisonment with his scathing comments about the 57-year-old billionaire and philanthropist made in August 2024.
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RFE/RL – Karapetian Critical Of Pashinian’s ‘Anti-Russian Policy’
- Shoghik Galstian
- Naira Bulghadarian
Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire leading the main opposition contender in next month’s Armenian parliamentary elections, on Thursday described Russia as a “strategic ally” and criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s pro-Western foreign policy.
Karapetian said that while he stands for a good rapport with the European Union he believes that membership in the EU sought by Pashinian is a “false prospect” because “nobody is waiting for Armenia” in the 27-nation bloc.
“I am worried that our people will not benefit from that [policy,]” he told a news conference. “Having surrendered everything, Pashinian has only one thing left to sell to the Europeans: anti-Russian policy. The Europeans would love to buy it from him.”
Pashinian met with the EU’s two top officials in Yerevan on Tuesday for what was officially billed as the first-ever EU-Armenia summit. European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to continue deepening ties with Armenia but stopped short of promising its eventual accession to the EU. Nor did they announce more economic aid to Yerevan.
The summit took place the day after a separate meeting in Yerevan of dozens of leaders of EU member and partner states making up the wider European Political Community. The forums are seen by local analysts as a pre-election show of support for Pashinian and his Civil Contract party.
A leading member of the ruling party, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, accused Russia on May 2 of plotting to “seize power” in Armenia through pro-Russian opposition groups, presumably including Karapetian’s Strong Armenia party. Karapetian has mostly lived and worked in Russia since the early 1990s.
The 60-year-old tycoon dismissed Pashinian allies’ claims that he is bent on increasing Armenia’s political and economic dependence on Russia. He argued that the Armenian economy is already heavily dependent on the Russian market and Russian natural gas supplied at a significant discount.
“I can’t increase that dependence any further, even if I wanted to,” he said. “But I do realize that Russia has been and will be our strategic ally, our main economic ally because we have no alternative today.”
Karapetian, who also has a third, Cypriot citizenship, expressed confidence about his Strong Armenia bloc’s victory in the June 7 elections.
“I base [the optimism] not only on opinion polls but also Pashinian’s extremely low rating,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pashinian again claimed that Strong Armenia and two other major opposition groups led by another wealthy businessman, Gagik Tsarukian, and former President Robert Kocharian may not win any parliament seats at all.
“Those parties must first think about entering the parliament,” he said. “It’s just ridiculous when they say they are going to win … Their sources of information and inspiration are not in Armenia.”
Some senior ruling party figures stated earlier this year that the Armenian authorities “will not allow” the three opposition forces to win a collective majority in the new National Assembly. The statements added to media speculation that at least some of them could be barred from the June 7 elections. Karapetian declined to say how his opposition movement would respond to such a ban.
Although all three opposition heavyweights have been registered by the Central Election Commission, Armenian law allows the body headed by a Pashinian ally to ask courts to disqualify contenders accused by it of systematic vote buying or campaign financing irregularities. In recent weeks, dozens of Strong Armenia members and supporters have been detained on charges of bribing voters strongly denied by Karapetian’s bloc.
The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) reported several more such arrests shortly after Karapetian’s news conference. It said that on behalf of another Russian-Armenian businessman residents of the southeastern Armenian town of Sisian have been promised money, jobs and other material benefits in return for voting for Strong Armenia. The law-enforcement agency did not identify the detainees or even reveal their number.
“As a frontrunner, we don’t need to hand out vote bribes,” Karapetian said, adding that the arrests highlight the authorities’ “fears” of election defeat.
Karapetian went on trial last month on different charges brought against him following his controversial arrest in June 2025. The Russian-Armenian tycoon remains under house arrest and will therefore not be able to physically attend election campaign rallies. But he is allowed to receive aides, loyalists and journalists and make public statements from his Yerevan mansion.
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A winter’s tale in the middle of spring. May snow fell in Armenia
While spring is waking up in the valley regions of the republic, the highland settlements are wearing white clothes again.
Deputy director of the “Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center” Gagik Surenyan shared on his social networks the snow-covered and charming landscapes of Nahapetavan village of Shirak marz and Aparan city of Aragatsotn marz.
In those shots, nature seems frozen in its fragile beauty, reminding how unpredictable and wonderful the Armenian winter can be.
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