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Editor’s note: We will be taking a very brief break from publishing the daily brief between 29 December and and 2 January. Thank you for reading us every day, see you soon, and happy holidays! Regional * Azerbaijan has sentenced Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian Karen Avanesyan, who according to RFE/RL has mental health issues, to 16 years in prison on charges of terrorism. Avanesyan was one of the handful Armenians who stayed in Nagorno-Karabakh after the 2023 exodus. He was arrested in September 2
Regional * US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the Trump administration prevented a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. * The Armenian Foreign Ministry, in response to Sputnik Armenia, has revealed that the actual implementation and construction phase of the Trump Route will begin in 2026. Armenia * Armenian MPs have received over ֏3 million ($7,800) in holiday bonuses. These reportedly include their salaries for December and January, in addition to double bonuses. * Former
Regional * Armenia is set to receive a third batch of grain transported through Azerbaijan. On Tuesday, Russian Railways reported that eight grain tankers were dispatched to Yerevan station and 30 more ‘are planned to be transported along this route by the end of this year, totaling over 2,000 tonnes of grain’. * Vagif Khachatryan, a Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian sentenced to 15 years in November 2023 for committing war crimes during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, has been hospitalised and his h
Armenia * While in Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the non-formal summit of the heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member countries held at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The leaders of CIS states had a tour in the museum, including in the Armenian Hall of Culture and Art, accompanied by Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky. * Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a tête-à-tête meeting yesterday. In his opening remarks
