Russian-Armenian tycoon Karapetyan declared candidate for prime minister despite ineligibility
Detained Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, who faces multiple charges in Armenia, has been named prime ministerial candidate of his newly formed Strong Armenia party. The announcement sparked controversy due to his ineligibility for the role according to current legislation.
Under Armenia’s existing constitution, candidates for prime minister must exclusively hold Armenian citizenship and have resided in the country for the previous four years.
As someone holding multiple passports, Karapetyan does not meet these requirements. He has also not resided consciously in Armenia for the last four years, making him not only ineligible to become prime minister but also to run for parliament in general.
Acknowledging Karapetyan’s ineligibility for the role in their statement on Thursday – featuring an AI-generated video message due to Karapetyan’s house arrest — his party announced plans to pursue constitutional changes that would allow him to assume office if they secure a majority in the 7 June parliamentary elections.
‘Twenty days after the elections, at the first session of the [parliament], we will introduce a legislative amendment that allows any person holding only Armenian citizenship to become the Prime Minister of Armenia. By that time, Samvel Karapetyan will be solely an Armenian citizen’, Narek Karapetyan, Samvel Karapetyan’s nephew, announced on Thursday.
Karapetyan’s team insisted that the planned amendment would be lawful and would not require a referendum. They displayed opinions from several lawyers and constitutional experts who argued that the constitutional article setting eligibility criteria for MPs is not among the provisions that require a referendum to be amended.
As Karapetyan was recently transferred to house arrest following his pre-trial detention since June, he was unable to attend the party’s event in person. In his absence, his team described what they called an ‘unprecedented’ solution, airing an AI-generated video message in his stead.
‘We want to make Armenia a blessed home where people can live with dignity, work with dignity, and be fairly paid — not a poor shelter that everyone wants to escape from’, the AI-generated message said.
The video further criticised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government for their domestic and foreign failures, arguing that the negotiations had resulted in a ‘weak peace’ with Azerbaijan.
‘Peace without a strong state is called surrender’, the AI-generated Karapetyan said.
Karapetyan, who has built his fortune in Russia, suggested that under his rule, Armenia would not get ‘caught up in geopolitical scheming’. Instead, he claimed that Armenia would ‘engage with all neighbours and work with all global powers, with everyone’.
‘We do not give a promise, we confirm, the occupied territories of [...] Armenia will be peacefully returned to us’, Narek Karapetyan said during the same event, apparently referring to Armenian territories occupied by Azerbaijan in 2021 and 2022.
He further vowed to bring back a sense of security to Armenia and ‘guaranteed and strong peace’.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
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.
Karapetyan was arrested after he showed support for the Armenian Apostolic Church during the ongoing government–Church confrontation, which escalated in May 2025.
‘If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’, Karapetyan said to News.am back in June.
Hours later, he was behind bars — charged with calling for a coup following a dramatic raid on his mansion in Yerevan. He was also later charged with money laundering.
Less than a month after his arrest, Karapetyan announced plans to create a ‘fundamentally new political force’.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
