New stain in Pelosi’s Armenian muddle The Vardanyan connection

Following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s highly-publicised trip to the Armenian capital, which has done a great disservice to Washington’s perceived balance vis-à-vis Baku-Yerevan dynamics, it may seem frivolous to dwell on the minutiae related to the travel and security expenses of the sojourn.

However, an entirely new complexion appears to have been brought upon the political sensitivity and moral integrity of the entire escapade, when one reflects on the revelation that the key supporter, with a whopping $75 million share, was Ruben Vardanyan, a controversial tycoon, who has recently renounced his Russian passport in favour of solely holding that of his ancestral homeland which, many believe, was predominately motivated by his steadfast intention of securing his financial resources in the face of Western anti-Kremlin initiatives, of which Pelosi herself is an ardent supporter, as she inhabits political airspace that faces the prevailing wind.

Disservice to US interests

One of the chief “caveats” propounded by the US State Department was that this was not a government-funded visit, and the lady in question, for all her elated position within the American hierarchy, being the second in the US Presidential line of succession, was not fulfilling an official foreign policy mission. This is only partially true, as the Speaker's international voyage was aimed at displaying unequivocal support for a particular country enmeshed in a confrontation with another, and thus cannot be extricated from an extended form of high-level diplomacy.

Plus, Pelosi herself did her level-best to ascribe to her trip “inflated representativeness”, speaking on behalf of the whole Congress and asseverating that “America stands with Armenia”. It is true that the House Speaker has been known for her political flings of running separate tracks to official US foreign policy, in many ways, seemingly undermining Washington’s chief interests in different parts of the globe. 

Her party-political interest mandates high-level ingratiation with the voters of California’s 12th congressional district and she is entitled to her opinions, however biased and ill-informed they may be. It is also by no means untrue that Pelosi is a woman in a hurry, in need of embellishing the dying days of her top career with ‘glorious bravado’, as evidenced by virtue of her highly controversial and misguided Taiwanese trip.

Nevertheless, the House Speaker’s conduct in Yerevan has been overtly rambunctious and her escapade should not just be viewed as a contumacious act of a rebellious voice. Far from appearing to be a peacemaker and even-handed statesperson, Pelosi revealed her deeply-entrenched and politically profitable pro-Armenian proclivity via indiscriminately assigning the blame to Azerbaijan for the recent escalations, doing a massive disservice to the perception of American impartiality in the context of the thorny Baku-Yerevan dynamics.

 Non-governmental money smells

The fact that Pelosi’s latest escapade was not financed by the US State Department should not pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. Out of the $120 million amount allocated for the purpose of the trip by the US-based Armenian diaspora, the greatest proportion, amounting to $75 million, was provided by Ruben Vardanyan, who is not residing in the US and by virtue of the source of his wealth is a man with a Russian past. It is due to his intimate association with the Kremlin that, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was included in the Putin Accountability Act introduced in the House of Representatives, where Pelosi is the holder of the gavel. This should be pretty galling for this Speaker with lofty aspirations.

It is believed that a $50 million portion of Vardanyan’s generous contribution has landed in the account of the US Democratic Party as a one-time donation, whereas $25 million was specifically allocated for the flight and security expenses to oil the wheels of Pelosi’s three-day mission. Most interestingly, the overall budget included $15 million specifically aimed at ensuring the House Speaker would emphasise the virtues of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, elucidating on his ‘bowel-shattering’ achievements. This is not very becoming of an alleged champion of human rights and an indefatigable warrior with a self-declared mission to defend freedom and democracy around the world.

But it all was nicely arranged by the Armenian National Committee of America, which displayed a high degree of finance-raising capacity and never mind that the significant proportion of these funds came from the banks linked with a man implicated in the ‘Troika Laundromat’ scandal, according to reports made by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in 2019.

The cunning nature of Vardanyan’s art is not shrouded in an enigmatic veil. He is driven by multifarious motives, amongst which his move to the Azerbaijani Karabakh region, with the purpose of laying foundations for his ambition to become the next Armenian Prime Minister, is central. Furthermore, he is encumbered with the task of saving his entrepreneurial interests from the wrath of Western punitive sanctions.

It is not unheard of amongst current Russian oligarchs, if one may still call them by this appellation, to offer their services in the interests of the EU and US so as to be absolved of their manifest sins. Mikhail Fridman has recently announced his willingness to invest $1 billion in the reconstruction of Ukraine, with the hope of being removed from the sanctions list. Vardanyan, given his manoeuvrability and strong survival instincts, may have already tried his hand in sculpting something similar. At the end of the day, cold cash has no conscience and leaves no bloodstain.