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Regional * The Azerbaijani media outlet Minval has released an audio recording purporting to show a Russian officer saying he had been ordered to fire at an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet December 2024. The outlet also released what it said was a written statement from the same officer. The jet, which was flying from Baku to Grozny, crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Azerbaijan has accused Russia of shooting at the plane with air defence systems and causing the crash. Armenia
Armenia * Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has received the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas. According to Pashinyan’s office readout, Kallas said the EU and Armenia have never been closer to each other than they are now. Kallas noted the EU’s readiness to further deepen the partnership in all directions. * Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced on Monday that the EU and Armenia ‘successfully completed negotiations on the new partnership agenda’, calling it an ‘ambitious document’. The announc
Regional * On Friday, the South Ossetian Parliament discussed Georgia’s calls for Syria to withdraw its recognition of South Ossetian independence. South Ossetian Foreign Minister Akhsar Dzhioev told MPs that his ministry is working to ‘neutralise this entire process’, and that they are in contact with the Syrian embassy in Moscow, noting that ‘we have certain developments and a certain optimism’. Dzhioev also highlighted that any work in this direction was being coordinated with Russia and Ab
Armenia * Armenian authorities have launched an investigation into a deepfake featuring Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The generated audio appeared to suggest that the raids and arrests on Wednesday were done on the instructions of Pashinyan and that all supporting evidence used to charge the suspects, including audio recordings discussing coup plans attributed to them, were artificially generated. * On Friday morning, Armenian National Security Service (NSS) officers entered the Mother See
