Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) does not disseminate ‘unfounded claims’, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said, defending the agency’s credibility after Yerevan denied a report alleging Armenia plans to purchase grain from Ukraine for political reasons.
The SVR had alleged in a report entitled ‘Yerevan’s kiss’, released on 11 November, that the Armenian government was seeking to distance itself from Russia and assist Ukraine by buying more expensive Ukrainian grain instead of Russian wheat. According to the SVR, Armenia intended to finance the purchase using funds from the EU.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan firmly rejected the report, calling the claim ‘absolutely absurd’ during a press briefing in parliament on 12 November.
‘That cannot happen’, Pashinyan said, denying both the alleged grain purchase and broader accusations of geopolitical manoeuvring against Russia.
Pashinyan also dismissed suggestions that Armenia’s foreign intelligence agency was being influenced by the US or the UK.
‘Great Britain and the US have no connection to it. It was created by decisions of the government of Armenia’, he stated. ‘At the same time, our foreign intelligence service, like any foreign intelligence service, cooperates with foreign partners, including from Russia, the US, and Great Britain’.
Pashinyan further denied media speculation that his administration had orchestrated an interview with Time magazine journalist Simon Schuster in response to an earlier interview by opposition figure Narek Karapetyan with American commentator Tucker Carlson.
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‘There is no such instruction, just as there is no campaign against the Church’, he said.
Russia remains Armenia’s largest grain supplier. According to official trade data, over 90% of Armenia’s wheat imports come from Russia.
Peskov declined to comment on whether the intelligence shared by the SVR had been verified by other branches of government, but defended the service’s professionalism.
‘SVR reports are never baseless’, Peskov stated during a briefing on 12 November.
Tensions between Yerevan and Moscow have been high in the past two years, following Azerbaijan’s takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia’s criticism of Russia’s role in regional peacekeeping efforts, as well Armenia’s turn to the West in search for new partners.
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