The Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan is one of the richest people in Armenia — his estimated wealth of $4.4 billion amounts to around half of the country’s entire public budget. For decades, Karapetyan has remained largely outside politics, instead gaining recognition for his business empire and as a benefactor who sponsored the renovation of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia’s oldest and most important church.
In June, that all changed when the 60-year-old stepped into the middle of a bitter feud between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
‘If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’, Karapetyan told News.am on 17 June in defence of the church. Hours later, Karapetyan was behind bars — charged with calling for the usurpation of power following a dramatic raid on his mansion in Yerevan.
Since then, the authorities have moved on the billionaire’s significant holdings, raiding his businesses, attempting to nationalise the country’s energy network, which Karapetyan controls, and shutting down his pizza restaurants on health and safety grounds.
Karapetyan’s name also appeared as a possible asset to be used by an alleged coup spearheaded by the now-detained Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan.
Karapetyan has fought back, challenging the attempts at nationalisation at an international tribunal and suing government officials for defamation.
But as the billionaire remains in prison awaiting trial, can his empire survive his showdown with Pashinyan?
The arrest
Karapetyan appeared to wade into politics when he spoke out in defence of the Armenian Church. For months, Pashinyan and other officials had been locked in an increasingly vulgar war of words with the institution (a week after Karapetyan’s arrest, Pashinyan offered to show his penis to the head of the church).
‘What opinion should I have’, Karapetyan asked, ‘when a small group, forgetting Armenian history and the thousands of years of the Armenian Church’s history, has attacked the Armenian Church and the Armenian people?’
‘Since I have always stood by the Armenian Church and the Armenian people, I will become directly involved. If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’, Karapetyan said in his now infamous interview.
The statement quickly went viral. As it did so, Pashinyan hit out in a series of social media posts insulting both the church and Karapetyan, vowing to ‘deactivate them again. And forever’.
As the searches were underway at Karapetyan’s mansion, Pashinyan made several other posts, in which he quoted Karapetyan’s remarks in the interview, responding with: ‘Now I will meddle with you in my own way’.
The attack on Karapetyan’s empire: Electric Networks of Armenia
Pashinyan’s threats did not appear to be empty. Since his arrest, authorities have raided, inspected, or threatened to nationalise several of Karapetyan’s businesses, though they have denied that these actions were politically motivated or connected to his arrest. Karapetyan himself has also faced a second set of charges — money laundering — which his lawyers have dismissed as ‘obviously unfounded’.
The most significant are the moves against Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), run by Karapetyan’s Tashir Group, which runs most of the country’s electricity distribution network.
While doubling down on his support for the church as he was led out of his home by police on the night of 17 June, Karapetyan insisted he did not ‘give a damn’ about the Armenian authorities ‘or their Electricity Network’.
In response, Pashinyan vowed to ‘swiftly’ nationalise the ENA, but maintained that this was not related to Karapetyan’s statements.
A day later, Armenia fined the ENA ֏10 million ($26,000) ‘for technical and commercial violations’.
On 3 July, the parliament adopted amendments that would allow the state to ‘intervene’ and take over the administration of the ENA should it fail to meet its obligations.
On 8 July, the authorities raided the ENA’s headquarters, along with the home of the company’s chair and Karapetyan’s nephew, Narek Karapetyan.
Following the raids, the Investigative Committee released two statements on 8 July: one noted that they had conducted ‘simultaneous searches’ at roughly 20 locations, as part of which they obtained evidences that Karapetyan’s supporters had ‘coerced and materially incentivised’ people to participate in a rally in support of Karapetyan on 4 July in Yerevan. After this, the Investigative Committee launched criminal proceedings against three unnamed individuals.
The second statement said the simultaneous searches had been conducted at a total of 51 addresses as part of another criminal case against representatives of several unnamed companies. They said the case involved ‘large-scale embezzlement by fraud, particularly large-scale money laundering, as well as particularly large-scale tax evasion’. Criminal prosecutions were brought against 11 people in this case, with five remanded into pre-trial custody.
On 18 July, the Chair of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, Mesrop Mesropyan, appointed Romanos Petrosyan as temporary manager of the ENA. Petrosyan is a prominent member of the ruling Civil Contract party’s board, and has held other positions in Pashinyan’s government.
‘At this stage, we — the state — must take over the management of the ENA, and we will take over the management of the ENA’, Pashinyan announced during a press conference the day before Petrosyan’s appointment.
Pashinyan also did not rule out that the ENA’s management could be outsourced.
Rumours have since emerged suggesting that the ENA could be bought by Grigor Ter-Ghazaryan, who is affiliated with the leader of the pro-Western Hanrapetyun party Aram Sargsyan. The party recently formed a coalition with Civil Contract in the Yerevan municipality.
Pizza and circuses
Several other of Karapetyan’s businesses have also been targeted.
Less than a week before the raids on the ENA, on 2 July, law enforcement agencies raided the main office of Karapetyan’s Tashir Group in Yerevan. The raid was carried out as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of ‘aggravated money laundering, tax evasion, and failure to pay duties or other payments’.
The Investigative Committee did not clarify when the criminal proceedings were launched. Karapetyan’s lawyer, Ruben Hakobyan, said the searches were conducted as part of three separate criminal proceedings, which he said had been initiated in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Tashir Pizza: Days after Karapetyan’s arrest, the Food Safety Inspection Body released multiple statements regarding inspections of all 30 branches of Tashir Pizza, a popular pizza chain belonging to Karapetyan. Inspectors shut down several branches for ‘gross violations of sanitary and hygienic standards’.
The agency told CivilNet on 19 June that the inspections were launched at the request of Tashir Pizza. They said the request had been submitted two weeks earlier. The results, they insisted ‘are just coming one by one’, which the Food Safety Inspection Body has continued to publish.
They further told RFE/RL that Tashir Pizza applied for inspections every year, however, they admitted that the number of violations found and the closure of so many branches was unprecedented. They attributed this to the company ‘aging over time’.
Tashir Pizza’s dairy production plant: On 18 June, the inspection body announced that they had suspended the production at Tashir Pizza’s dairy production plant in Karapetyan’s hometown of Tashir, in the northern Lori Province, citing ‘violations of sanitary and hygienic norms’.
Yerevan Circus nationalisation: On the same day as the raid on the ENA, the State Property Management Committee sued the Yerevan Circus, also belonging to Karapetyan, demanding it terminate a number of contracts dating back to 2006–2011 and return the real estate to the state.
The authorities said that even though investments were made, the company had failed to fulfil its remaining obligations, such as creating jobs and completing the construction of the circus building.
At the end of July, Armenian media reported that the first season of the renovated circus, called Tashir Arena, would start in the autumn of 2025.
How Karapetyan has fought back
Arbitration lawsuit: On 22 July, Karapetyan’s defence council announced that the family had won an urgent arbitration case against the government over attempts to nationalise the ENA, adding that the decision of the Stockholm-based SCC Arbitration Institute was subject to ‘mandatory execution’ by the government.
The tribunal reportedly applied interim measures prohibiting the government from taking further steps to ‘seize’ the company including refraining from enacting recent legislative amendments aimed at taking over the ENA before a full arbitration case could be held.
The government’s response cast doubt over whether they would honour the ruling, a move that could impact investor confidence in the country.
The government stated that ‘while respecting the security measures applied by foreign arbitration decisions, at the same time everyone is also obliged to be guided by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and international treaties that define the rules and procedures for the recognition and implementation of arbitration decisions’.
Following this, Armenia’s Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan announced that the country’s domestic legislation and international conventions allowed the possibility of not enforcing an international arbitration ruling ‘if it contradicts public order’.
At the end of July, in an interview with CivilNet, Galyan noted that if the ENA was nationalised, Karapetyan would be compensated.
On 11 August, the Karapetyan family said they had initiated a full investment arbitration case against Armenia over the ‘expropriation’ of the ENA, seeking $500 million compensation for existing and expected damages as a result of the government’s actions.
Defamation lawsuits: Aside from the arbitration case, since 1 July, Karapetyan has filed 15 lawsuits against members of the ruling Civil Contract party and other critics related to defamation or insults, demanding up to ֏9 million ($24,000) in compensation along with public retractions. This has included cases against MPs Arsen Torosyan and the party’s parliamentary faction head, Hayk Konjoryan, as well as Pashinyan’s spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan, Pashinyan’s deputy chief of staff, Taron Chakhoyan, and pro-government bloggers.
Does Karapetyan harbour political ambitions?
Since his arrest, Karapetyan has doubled down on his foray into politics. On 14 July, he announced plans to create a ‘fundamentally new political force’, adding that the ‘formation of our political team has begun’. This could pave the way for him to challenge the government in parliamentary elections scheduled for June 2026.
‘I have great respect for the political forces and figures who have fought a real struggle against the policy of Nikol Pashinyan’s anti-national government’, he said in a statement, ‘but we have our vision to build a good future for Armenia. And we will go our own way, with our new team, not excluding domestic cooperation with like-minded people’.
‘We will do it in our own way’, he concluded, an allusion to the remark he made before his arrest that led to his arrest.
Weeks later, on 26 July, Karapetyan’s nephew Narek (the son of former Republican Party MP Karen Karapetyan), announced that Samvel Karapetyan would lead the new party.
Even before Karapetyan announced his intention to found a new political party, the government appeared to already be moving to block his involvement in politics.
Just under two weeks after his arrest, on 30 June, Pashinyan called for new mechanisms or legislation to limit the political activity of foreign nationals. While not naming Karapetyan directly, Pashinyan said that certain foreign nationals expressed ‘the most radical views’, such as making calls for the overthrow of constitutional order.
On the same day, Pashinyan touched on ‘hybrid threats’ he said Armenia faced, adding it was necessary to pay ‘special attention’ to the activities of ‘agents of [foreign] influence’. Karapetyan reportedly holds dual citizenship with Armenia and Russia.
As such, Karapetyan would already be barred from serving as prime minister under the current rules — the Armenian constitution requires a person to have been solely a citizen of Armenia for the preceding four years for that post.
Three days later, Civil Contract MPs passed a resolution in parliament declaring the ‘inadmissibility’ of usurping power from the state.
Since Karapetyan’s arrest, local authorities in Yerevan have also taken down digital billboards and posters with messages in support of Karapetyan or calling for his release, which were placed near his businesses in the capital.
In an extended press briefing on 17 July, Pashinyan again attacked Karapetyan, threatening to wield the ‘steel mandate’ he said had been given to him by the public if anyone attempted to encroach on Armenia’s independence or statehood.
‘What I’m saying, dear colleagues, is that just as you behave in your country of primary citizenship, you should come to Armenia with the same attitude’, he said. ‘This is not some random place; this is a state. I’ve said that the taste of the state will remain in your mouths. And in such moments, the taste of the state will stay in your mouths for a long time. And I say this as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia,’ Pashinyan said.
A Russian interest?
Karapetyan’s prosecution has resulted in further tensions in Armenia’s already strained relations with Russia, culminating in Armenia summoning the Russian Ambassador.
As the Armenian authorities have attempted to paint Karapetyan as a ‘Russian agent’, Russia itself responded swiftly to his arrest, considering him a Russian citizen and a prominent figure in Russian business circles.
On the same day of the raids on Karapetyan’s home on 17 June, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova expressed Russia’s readiness to provide ‘necessary assistance’ to him. She also labelled the pretext for Karapetyan’s arrest ‘strange’.
Following this, Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov called the Armenian government ‘corrupt, vile, worthless’.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan appeared to respond to these remarks, saying ‘there were unacceptable calls, distorted assessments, and insults’ being directed at the Armenian authorities. These, he said, were ‘not only contradictory to the traditional Armenia–Russia friendship and the legal documents that enshrine or regulate that friendship but also as a direct, blatant interference in the internal affairs of […] Armenia and an encroachment on our sovereignty and democracy’.
In early July, Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia, Gurgen Arsenyan, visited the Russian Foreign Ministry for talks, days after Armenia summoned Sergei Kopyrkin, the Russian ambassador to Yerevan, and handed him a protest note over what it called the ‘openly unfriendly, often hostile propaganda’ against the Armenian government in the Russian media.
The Russian readout of the meeting said only that Arsenyan met with Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, who emphasised the ‘need to maintain a constructive information background in Armenia around Russia and bilateral ties’.
The tensions surrounding Karapetyan’s arrest, despite turning into another occasion for Armenian authorities to voice concerns about the ‘hybrid threats’ posed by Russia, have not developed into a fullscale diplomatic crisis.
For his part, Pashinyan suggested there was ‘a strong likelihood’ that certain circles in Russia and beyond were ‘behind these hybrid actions and hybrid war’ against Armenia. However, speaking at a press briefing on 18 June, he added that he did not believe ‘such an action could come from the Kremlin or the Russian government’.
