Armenia | Prosecutors: Russia tried to stage a violent coup in Armenia

Armenian prosecuting authorities argued on Wednesday that Russia hired and trained a group of Armenians to seize power in Armenia earlier this year. However, according to the prosecutors, Armenian security forces interrupted the plans.

Armenian news agencies reported on the matter Armenpress and News.am.

Seven people are accused of “preparing the usurpation of power… taking government power with violence or the threat of violence”.

According to the authorities, six Armenians were trained for the task in Russia for three months. The training included the use of heavy weapons. They were paid 220,000 rubles, or about 2,000 euros per month.

Prosecutors claim the six were taken to Rostov-on-Don and put through lie-detector tests to ensure they were ideologically fit for the job and had no ties to Armenian security services.

in South Caucasus Armenia, with a population of three million, is a traditional ally of Russia, but in the last couple of years it has positioned itself in the direction of Western countries.

There are two main reasons: Russia launched a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, and Azerbaijan drove the ethnic Armenian population out of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023 under the supervision of Russian peacekeepers.

The Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh was practically independent and in many ways dependent on Armenia, although from the point of view of international law it belonged to Azerbaijan in the past.

Instead, Russia’s relations with Azerbaijan have warmed. Last May, Armenia and Russia agreed that the Russian soldiers who guarded Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan would leave the country.

Last February, Armenia suspended its membership in the Collective Security Organization (CSTO), the military alliance of former Soviet republics. It is also sent by humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

“If we see a somewhat realistic possibility of becoming a full member of the EU, we will seize the moment”, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan quoth According to Armenpress, on Wednesday.