Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan formally asked the EU for such a deployment on behalf of the Armenian government in a February 13 letter seen by RFE/RL. According to diplomatic notes from recent discussions in Brussels, the EU is keen to “express support for strengthening Armenia’s democratic resilience and information integrity both ahead of the June 2026 elections, and during the ongoing peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” That support “should be aimed clearly at reducing and mitigating Russia’s destabilizing activities.”
EU diplomats told RFE/RL that the idea is to get the mission up and running by the time of the EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan on May 4. That means the deployment should be unanimously approved by the bloc’s member states next month.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday declined to comment on Mirzoyan’s request. A ministry spokeswoman said she has nothing to add to her statement on the subject made in December. She said at the time that Yerevan wants the EU to help it “counter potential hybrid threats” to the proper conduct of elections.
Earlier in December, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’s revealed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government is seeking the kind of “help to fight foreign malign interference” which the EU provided to Moldova ahead of parliamentary elections held there in September 2025.
Kallas’s revelation prompted serious concern from Armenian opposition leaders. They claimed that Pashinian is trying to secure an EU blank check for winning the June 7 elections through fraud or foul play. Some of them also charged that the EU itself wants to meddle in the showdown elections. Pashinian’s political allies dismissed the opposition claims.
The 27-nation bloc’s plans to send the special election mission to Armenia have only added to the opposition concerns. Gegham Manukian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Hayastan alliance, said it will seek to help the Armenian authorities justify or cover up vote irregularities.
“This is truly a great disgrace,” Manukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “I could hardly find a more blatant example of interference in the internal political situation in Armenia than what is being done [by the EU.]”
“The [Armenian] government will become much more arrogant and will flout laws much more blatantly, confident that it will not be condemned or criticized by any international organization,” he said.
The EU deployed a similar mission Moldova during the September elections won by the former Soviet republic’s pro-Western leadership at odds with Russia. The mission consisted of roughly 20 people who worked alongside Moldovan authorities to detect and counter disinformation emanating from Russia on social media.
Two Moldovan opposition parties deemed pro-Russian were barred from running in the polls. The EU defended those bans, alleging Russian interference in the Moldovan elections. Moscow strongly denied that and denounced the elections as fraudulent.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the EU late last month of encouraging Pashinian’s administration to rig the Armenian elections and seek further confrontation with Russia. Meeting with parliament speaker Alen Simonian on February 5, Russian Lavrov also deplored the Armenian government’s implicit claims about Russia’s “hybrid” threats to Armenia.
