Russia’s Rostec withdraws from joint project amid arrest of Armenian partner

Russian state corporation Rostec has officially pulled out of a project to create a unified clinical laboratory diagnostics network, which had been planned in collaboration with Tashir Group, a company owned by Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who was recently arrested in Armenia.

According to Russian corporate database SPARK, at the end of 2025, Rostec’s subsidiary RT-Business Development LLC transferred its 10% stake in Centralised Diagnostic Systems LLC (CDS) to Tashir Medica, making the Armenian-owned firm the sole shareholder. Neither party has commented publicly on the transfer, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media. 

CDS previously established subsidiaries in Samara and Yekaterinburg between 2022 and 2023. The Samara unit was liquidated in 2024, while the Yekaterinburg subsidiary remains operational. Public procurement records show that CDS signed three contracts totaling roughly 55 million rubles ($650,000) with a city hospital in Astrakhan in 2021. There is no record of the company participating in other public tenders.

The project, originally announced at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2021, aimed to create a federal operator consolidating high-tech laboratory research across multiple regions and establishing a nationwide network of medical centres within five years. Investment figures for the initiative were not disclosed.

By Sabina Mammadli