Armenian official says attempts were made to disrupt Pashinyan’s visit to Russia

Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan has said that there were efforts to undermine Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s engagement with Armenians in Russia during his recent visit to St. Petersburg.  

In a post on Telegram, Simonyan noted that the efforts had failed and would not succeed, Caliber.Az reports. 

To support his claim, he shared a screenshot of a text exchange in which an unnamed interlocutor reported receiving calls from around 15 people urging participation in a rally. The planned protest was reportedly linked to tensions between Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Relations between the government and the church have sharply deteriorated in recent months. Pashinyan has publicly questioned the suitability of Catholicos Garegin II to remain head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, while law enforcement authorities have detained or questioned several senior clerics on allegations ranging from incitement to suspected coup plotting. 

Pashinyan was in St. Petersburg on December 21–22, where he took part in a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council and, the following day, attended an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

By Sabina Mammadli