Armenia charges Russian blogger over offensive language about Armenians, Vardavar water festival

Russian blogger Nadezhda Pirozhkova has been charged with hate speech after she published a video complaining about how she was splashed unwillingly during Armenia’s Vardavar water festival while calling the festival itself ‘aggressive’ and referring to Armenians as being ‘rat-like’. The charges were reported by the Russian-language Polish media outlet Vot Tak on Wednesday, citing comments from Armenia’s Investigative Committee.

Vardavar is a national holiday in Armenia connected to the country’s Apostolic Church. The key manner of celebrating the holiday is by splashing others with water in the street — including total strangers.

Pirozhkova, who apparently has lived in Armenia since 2025, had published a video on social media taken during the festival earlier in July, which contained clips of her complaining about being splashed even as she tells passersby she does not want to be involved in the holiday.

She also described the holiday as ‘direct aggression towards visitors’ along with the above-mentioned offensive language.

The video quickly racked up thousands of views, and Pirozhkova ultimately made a public apology for the remarks.

‘I understand that many took it as disrespect for the Armenian people. And I truly regret it. I did not and do not have such an intention’, Pirozhkova wrote.

‘I recorded an emotional video about a specific situation and spoke from my feelings at the time. I felt vulnerable at the time and wanted to protect myself’, she wrote, adding, ‘I also didn’t check the sound when I posted the story. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended up online’, likely referring to the outrage over the ‘rat-like’ comments.

The apology apparently did not mollify the public, which reported the comments to the Interior Ministry, the Investigative Committee told Vot Tak.

Pirozhkova has been placed under house arrest pending the results of the investigation, and if convicted, faces from one to four years in prison.