Armenia accuses Russia of staging coup against country's pro-West PM, charges 7 people

Armenia accuses Russia of hiring and training a ring of insurgents in a bid to overthrow the country’s pro-Western government. The allegations were hurled by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia on Wednesday. The authorities noted that seven people were charged with “preparing to usurp power … using violence and the threat of violence to take over the powers of government.”

The officials stated that six Armenians were recruited to undergo a three-month-long training in Russia. These insurgents were paid monthly salaries of 220,000 rubles ($2,377) and underwent thorough background checks and polygraph tests before they were sent to “Arbat military base” in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia.

The Russian authorities are yet to respond to the accusations.

The deteriorating relations between Armenia and Russia

The two nations shared strong ties for decades before Armenia expressed discontent over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Armenia froze its membership in the Moscow-led CSTO military alliance, dispatching humanitarian aid to Kyiv and staging joint drills with US forces.

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Amid all this, Moscow forged closer ties with Armenia’s longtime rival Azerbaijan. Last month, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev held friendly talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Baku.

A major dent in Russia-Armenia ties came after Russian border guards, who had been stationed in Armenia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, were asked to withdraw from their posts earlier this year. In September last year, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Politico that a Russian peacekeeping mission in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region had “failed to do its job,” after Russian forces stood aside when Azerbaijan launched a new offensive in the enclave.

On Wednesday, the Armenian premier made it clear that the country would continue to pivot towards the West. “If we see a more or less realistic possibility of becoming a full member of the European Union,” he said, “we will not miss that moment".

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With inputs from agencies.