Pashinyan claims ‘circles in Russia, Armenia’ seek to ‘eliminate’ Armenia’s independence

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has accused ‘certain circles’ in Russia and Armenia of seeking to destabilise the country, claiming their ultimate goal is to ‘eliminate’ Armenia’s de facto independence.

The remarks came on Thursday, when Pashinyan claimed that Russian restrictions on Armenian products in recent months had failed to produce the economic and political consequences sought by these groups.

Russia began imposing restrictions on Armenian products in April, ahead of the June parliamentary elections. The measures intensified during the pre-election campaign: prompting many to view them as an attempt by Moscow to influence the election’s outcome.

Is the Armenian election really about the West vs Russia?

While the West has relied on showing support through statements and summits, Russia has resorted to economic pressure and overt warnings.

OC MediaArshaluys Barseghyan

‘There are circles in and out of Armenia that are and will be trying to exploit this working situation not only to incite instability in Armenia, but there is also a very specific reason behind instability — the elimination of Armenia’s de facto independence’, Pashinyan said.

He described the alleged efforts as the third attempt in three years to provoke domestic instability in Armenia.

According to him, the first attempt came in September 2023, after Azerbaijan launched its final offensive to take control of Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia within a week.

‘The aim was to direct the flow of people toward Armenia, while calls were simultaneously being made to change the political authorities’, Pashinyan said.

Later, asked why he had not named those allegedly seeking to destabilise Armenia directly, given that his accusations appeared to be directed at Russia, Pashinyan said he had explicitly referred to certain circles in Russia.

‘I had said very specifically that certain circles in Russia — yes, is this news to you? Didn’t I say it? I had said certain circles in Russia, I just referred to it. Who was posting on Facebook in 2023, calling on the people of Armenia to take to the streets and remove the anti-national government? Who was doing that?’, Pashinyan said.

During the crisis, pro-Kremlin figures and propagandists urged Armenians to join anti-government protests in the streets of Yerevan, warning that were they not to do so, they would become ‘participants’ in the ‘genocide’ of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.

Kremlin propaganda turns up the heat on Armenia

Russia and Armenia’s rapidly deteriorating relations have taken a new turn in recent weeks, with the Kremlin’s propaganda channels openly turning on Armenia, and in particular, its leader, Nikol Pashinyan. According to Russia’s state-run Channel One, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is, per the title of a 23 October broadcast, ‘a harbinger of trouble’. The hour-long programme was dedicated in its entirety to criticism of Pashinyan, focusing on the idea that he had sold, or was in the

OC MediaAni Avetisyan

Pashinyan identified the second attempt as the June parliamentary election without elaborating, saying that a third attempt was now being planned in the context of Russian restrictions.

‘There is no economic component here; we are dealing with a political component. The goal is to provoke domestic political instability in Armenia and, de facto, and subsequently de jure, deprive Armenia of its independence’, Pashinyan said, expressing confidence that the Armenian state was ‘sufficiently resilient and will overcome this situation as well’.

‘Our history in 2020, in 2021, or in 2023 will be erased’

In another part of the briefing, Pashinyan addressed his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin after being asked about their recent interaction on the sidelines of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Turkmenistan. At the summit, Putin — despite bilateral tensions — tapped him on the shoulder and the two had an informal conversation.

‘Personal relations have always been and will remain positive, but it doesn’t mean that our history in 2020, in 2021, or in 2023 will be erased. It does not mean that. It does not mean that not receiving the armaments we paid for is disappearing from our history’, Pashinyan said.

‘It does not mean that what happened in September 2022 is being erased from our history’, he added, referring to a series of events that have strained Armenia’s relations with Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

During the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, Azerbaijan used weapons supplied by Russia and Belarus, both members of the CSTO, alongside arms supplied by other countries.

In 2021 and 2022, Azerbaijan launched further attacks on Armenian territory, prompting Yerevan to seek CSTO assistance, but as Pashinyan reiterated on Thursday, the bloc ‘failed to fulfil its treaty obligations’. And in September 2023, Azerbaijan took control of Nagorno-Karabakh despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers deployed under the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement.

Armenia also paid Russia for weapons under contracts signed in 2021, but received only a small portion of the agreed supplies. The remaining amount was later offset against Armenia’s state debt to Russia.

‘The fact is that when we are dependent on one country for weapons, gas, apricot, this poses a threat to our state, and we must manage that threat ourselves’, Pashinyan concluded, in reference to Armenia’s dependence on Russia as a primary supplier or market.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.