Armenia warns of foreign pressure on diaspora ahead of election

Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS) has detected signs of possible foreign interference ahead of the country’s 7 June parliamentary elections. The FIS said Armenians living abroad have reportedly been pressured to back certain political parties, without specifying the country behind the alleged interference.

The statement was issued exclusively to the state-run media outlet Armenpress on Tuesday.

Based on intelligence, the FIS said various actors in an unnamed foreign country, who reportedly present themselves as representatives of that country’s special services, ‘are attempting to exert pressure’ on individuals of Armenian origin and Armenian nationals engaged in economic activities there.

The goal of the pressures are ‘to induce them to undertake actions supporting certain political forces that have declared their intention to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia’, the statement read.

It further clarified that the actions include ‘the provision by the said businesspersons of financial and organizational support to those political forces’.

The ruling Civil Contract party’s main opponent in the upcoming elections is believed to be Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia Party.

According to the International Republican Institute (IRI) latest survey, 20% of respondents chose Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as the most trustworthy political figure, followed by Karapetyan at 10%.

Karapetyan, who is currently under house arrest, was detained in June 2025 after making public statements siding with the Armenian Apostolic Church amid its confrontation with Pashinyan’s government. While under arrest, Karapetyan announced his entry into politics.

Other main candidates declaring their participation in the elections include  former president Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance, the largest opposition faction in the current Armenian parliament, as well as tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, who has vowed to build a political ‘Noah’s Ark’.

‘Just as Noah saw the path to salvation and rebirth, we must try to do the same today’, Tsarukyan said.

The former ruling Republican Party and its leader, former president Serzh Sargsyan, ousted by the 2018 Velvet Revolution, have yet to declare their decision regarding their participation in the elections.

Civil Contract, which vowed to secure a constitutional majority in the elections, also warned that the opposition intends to come to power through a coalition formed after the vote.

‘Hybrid attacks’

In addition to the most recent FIS report, the agency had previously warned that ahead of the elections, ‘the influence operations conducted against Armenia by various foreign actors will highly likely become more comprehensive, complex and large-scale’.

The annual report of FIS also noted that hybrid threats against Armenia in 2026 would ‘highly likely become more comprehensive, complex, and large-scale’ in the run-up to the vote.

While the report has not singled out any specific country as being behind the ‘hybrid war’ against Armenia, officials from the EU and Yerevan have accused Moscow of employing various tactics against the country, including disinformation campaigns and other attempts to interfere in Armenia’s domestic affairs.

In the past several months leading up to the elections, Armenia has also seen heightened numbers of disinformation coming from foreign sources, imitating well-established newsrooms, which they frame as ‘hybrid attacks’.

In February, Pashinyan’s spokesperson Nazerli Baghdasaryan said the Russian and Chinese bot networks Matryoshka, Storm, and DragonBridge are responsible for spreading false narratives about Armenia.