Armenian Vice-Speaker blasts opposition claims of Bolshevik legacy in current government

Vice-Speaker of Armenian Parliament, member of the ruling Civil Contract party, Ruben Rubinyan, has criticised opposition claims that the country’s authorities are descendants of Bolsheviks who fought against the ultra-nationalist party ARF Dashnaktsutyun.

Responding to remarks by Gegham Manukyan, an MP from the opposition Armenia bloc, during a National Assembly session, Rubinyan dismissed the claims as absurd, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

"Are you serious? With whose support did the prominent Communist Party figure Vardanik [Vardan Ghukasyan] become mayor of Gyumri? Ours? And after that, you still have the audacity to accuse us of all sorts of perversions. There is no greater perversion than the Bolshevik-Dashnak alliance. It is completely obvious that as a result of this twisted intermingling, someone like Vardanik was bound to emerge," Rubinyan stressed.

Manukyan's original comments, part of broader opposition critiques of Pashinyan's pro-Western policies, accused the regime of inheriting Bolshevik authoritarianism in its handling of dissent, including the church and opposition arrests. This spat follows Rubinyan's earlier social media post on October 21, where he held former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, along with ARF Dashnaktsutyun, accountable for enabling Ghukasyan's mayoralty despite his history of graft.

Ghukasyan's October 20 arrest, alongside seven others including the city's chief architect, on bribery charges—allegedly accepting $10,000 to overlook an illegal 1,500 m² building on Garegin Nzhdeh Street—has ignited the feud. The Anti-Corruption Committee, established in 2021 under Pashinyan, claims the graft occurred just six months into his term, echoing his prior mayoral stints (1999–2011). Ghukasyan, a three-time mayor and vocal pro-Russian critic of Pashinyan's territorial "concessions" to Azerbaijan, decried the charges as a "political vendetta" in a pre-arrest video, urging residents to "defend the city's independence." His detention sparked clashes, with 33 protesters arrested for "mass disorder," further fueling opposition outrage.

By Khagan Isayev