Lusine Badalyan, an MP representing Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party, claims that she was refused entry to Russia on Wednesday as tensions between the two countries continue to deteriorate.
In a statement on Facebook, Lusine Badalyan said that she was enroute to Saint Petersburg to take part in a CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) committee meeting when she was informed.
While Armenia has historically denied Russian officials access, such as the block placed on MP Konstantin Zatulin in 2022, this appears to be the first time in recent history that Russia has refused entry to politicians from Yerevan.
The former TV presenter says she was told that her ‘entry there was prohibited. For what reason, it is not known’. It is not clear whether Badalyan was told on arrival to Russia or before she boarded the plane. OC Media has reached out to the MP for comment.
Badalyan said: ‘It is a strange and worrying situation when a member of a national parliamentary delegation is not allowed to travel to the headquarters of an international parliamentary organisation to perform his official duties and participate in the work of the committee’.
Neither Russia nor the CIS has yet commented on Badalyan’s claims.
Ties between Armenia and Russia have been slowly deteriorating since 2020, escalating after Moscow’s unwillingness to fulfill its defence obligations under the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in the face of Azerbaijani attacks in 2021 and 2022.
Russia increasingly became opposed to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Civil Contract, including openly wishing for his defeat in the June parliamentary elections. As Armenia has sought to strengthen its ties with the EU, relations have gone into freefall. In August 2026, Pashinyan said Armenia would soon submit an official application to join the bloc, which has inspired outcry from Russia. Moscow has said that Yerevan cannot simultaneously be a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the EU.