Armenia launches what appears to be first-ever investigation of Russian-backed espionage
Armenia has launched an investigation into what appears to be the first-ever case of Russian-backed espionage and treason since independence, targeting opposition politician Andranik Tevanyan, a candidate on tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan’s electoral list for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Tevanyan is accused of being recruited by foreign intelligence services in 2024 and of passing on state secrets in exchange for $622,000.
He is also alleged to have acted under the instructions of a foreign intelligence representative described as the director of the ‘Russia Caucasus’ geopolitical centre. OC Media could not find any publicly available information on the organisation.
According to the Investigative Committee’s statement, Tevanyan ‘illegally’ collected and transferred ‘information containing state secrets — namely, Russian-translated information regarding the course and results of hearings held during a closed, classified session of the parliament in April 2024’.
Following the opening of the case, searches were conducted early on Friday morning at the office of Tevanyan’s Mother Armenia party and at his apartment. Separately, searches were also carried out at the home of MP Martun Grigoryan from the I Have Honour faction, who is also linked to Tsarukyan’s electoral list.
Tevanyan has described the operation as an attempt to obstruct their election campaign. He also rejected the allegations in a Facebook Live, describing the case as ‘fabricated’ and ‘nonsense’.
According to Tevanyan, despite being elected as an MP from the Armenia Alliance faction in 2021, he stepped down in 2023, noting that he ‘physically’ could not have attended such a parliamentary session.
‘If you read the statement carefully, you will see the word ILLEGALLY. In other words, during 2024, the person illegally collected information containing state secrets. That circumstance is also the subject of the investigation’, the Armenian Investigative Committee elaborated in response.
On Friday evening, the Central Electoral Commission is set to discuss the prosecutor’s motion to initiate criminal prosecution against Tevanyan. If convicted of espionage or high treason, he faces a potential life sentence.
Shooting or Tsarukyan’s lion’s cage?
The allegations against Tevanyan, as well as an upcoming report from the National Security Service (NSS), were first announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday, while campaigning in Armenia’s third-largest city, Vanadzor.
At the same time, Pashinyan, who dubbed his Civil Contract’s main political opponents the alliances and parties led by Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, ex-President Robert Kocharyan, and Tsarukyan a ‘three-headed war party’, suggested they could instead be ‘rebranded’ a ‘three-headed party of espionage’.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Two days later, on Friday, Pashinyan noted in a press briefing that Armenia and Russia had an agreement not to engage in espionage activities on each other’s territory, and that it would be made clear during the investigation if the contract had been violated.
He further argued that suspected espionage cases should not be handled through immediate arrests but through prolonged monitoring to map networks and contacts, including which electoral list the person ended up in, ‘from whom that party leader receives orders’, whether they fulfill such orders or not.
Pashinyan also raised the possibility that Tevanyan’s case could be linked to broader dynamics involving Tsarukyan’s family, including the wanted status of his son, Nver Tsarukyan.
Nver Tsarukyan is wanted in Armenia over a 2024 shooting incident and has reportedly remained abroad since travelling to Belarus and Russia on what he described as a ‘business trip’.
Earlier in May, Pashinyan vowed to ‘drag [Tsarukyan’s] son back from Belarus by the scruff of his neck and bring him to justice’.
‘We need to understand whether they influenced [Tsarukyan] through that son factor or not, whether he is voluntarily serving against his own country’s interests, or whether he has some business interests, and so on’, Pashinyan said on Friday.
‘If they declare that Tsarukyan is a spy, let them shoot me, I will write the relevant paper on my own free will. If not, the one who expresses it must come, enter my lion’s cage, of their own free will’, Tsarukyan had said the day prior.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
The case against Tevanyan is the first to emerge since Pashinyan claimed in April that the authorities had compiled a ‘thick file’ of individuals allegedly acting in line with foreign agendas. At the time, Pashinyan said some political figures were ‘walking along the edge’ of espionage.
‘Once they cross it, there will be a response’, Pashinyan said.
