Nikol Pashinian
The pre-election campaign for the parliamentary elections in Armenia started on May 8 and will last until June 5. As part of the campaign, Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and Chairman of the Board of the Civil Contract Party, who is on vacation, stated that he was ready to leave “at the moment when the people decide that I should leave”.
“This vote should not and cannot be obtained under coercion or bribery. We vote because we must stand up in defense of the state, peace and the future of Armenia,” Pashinyan said, quoted by Armenpress.
Cognac, flowers and geopolitics
The closer the elections get, the more tense the situation between Brussels and Moscow becomes – political processes intersect in Yerevan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by News.am as saying that Armenia is trying to be dragged into the anti-Russian camp in order to make Russia “as painful as possible.”
Rosselkhoznadzor has imposed temporary restrictions on the import of flowers from Armenia since May 22. As Logos Press has already written, after the ban on the supply of flowers, vegetables and fruits, cognac was also subject to restrictions.
“The biggest campaign. After Moldova
Europe, for its part, says that Russia is conducting a large-scale disinformation campaign against Armenia ahead of the elections. Euronews writes that by early May, 343 fake videos had been identified. “According to analysts, this is one of the largest such operations in recent years – only the campaign to interfere in the Moldovan elections in 2025 was larger,” the publication writes.
A month before the elections, at the junction of the start of the election campaign, a “historic” EU summit was held in Yerevan, following the results of which the European Union for the first time directly recorded a political signal to Armenia – the summit’s final document speaks of the “aspiration of the Armenian people” for rapprochement with the EU.
At an extraordinary session on May 22, the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Armenia invalidated the registration of 7 parliamentary candidates.
Diaspora factor
Recently, a PACE delegation visited Yerevan, which, according to Armenpress, “expressed concern about the increasingly complex and systemic nature of the external interference affecting Armenia’s political and information sphere”.
“The delegation was informed about the direct and unequivocal requests of the Russian President to the Armenian Prime Minister to facilitate the voting of the Armenian Diaspora from Russia, as well as the financial incentives provided by the main opposition party to this part of the Diaspora to visit Armenia and vote on election day,” the delegation said in a statement.
According to the Armenian government, today about 7 million Armenians live in more than 100 countries around the world. At the same time, in Russia – one of the largest Armenian communities – there are about 1 million people, according to official data. According to unofficial estimates, including unregistered migrants, this number may reach 2 million.
The media say that the elections in Armenia are decisive for the future direction of the country’s development. The main political rival of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is considered to be the bloc headed by Robert Kocharyan, former president and former prime minister of the country.
