Yerevan has accused a group of people of training Armenians at a military base in Russia to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee on Wednesday announced the arrest of three people and the inclusion of four others on a wanted list. They stated that the seven suspects are Armenian citizens and Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. They have been charged with usurping power, and if found guilty, face up to 15 years imprisonment.

Over the course of 2024, this group recruited an undisclosed number of Armenian citizens and former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh under the pretext of undergoing training sessions in Russia, along with a monthly stipend of ₽220,000 ($2,400). The recruits were told that these trainings would teach them how to use heavy weaponry, and that upon returning to Armenia, they would be able to utilise their new skills in carrying out combat duty, as well as in training others. 

According to Armenian authorities, once the recruits were transferred to Russia, they underwent preliminary checks, including a polygraph test, ‘in order to find out their personal characteristics and political views, the relationship with the Armenian law enforcement bodies’.

If they passed this initial test, the recruits were then deployed at the Russian Arbat Battalion’s military base to undergo combat training. It was only at this point that the recruits were told the actual goal of the training sessions — ‘to return to the Republic of Armenia and remove the current authority’.

Reportedly, a number of recruits refused to take part in the training sessions and instead returned to Armenia.

An Armenian fact-checking outlet, Fip.am, reported that the Arbat Battalion was established in 2022 and that it primarily consisted of ethnic Armenians. They added that the battalion had signed an agreement with the Russian Defence Ministry. They also noted that the unit has been fighting in Ukraine.

Its commander, Hayk Gasparyan, is originally from Nagorno-Karabakh. He was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for armed and violent robbery, after which he was recruited from prison to fight in Ukraine as a member of Wagner, a Russian military group linked to the Russian government.

He has received several medals, including one handed to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin for ‘demonstrating courage during a special military operation’.

In July 2023, the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow held a blessing ceremony for soldiers of the then newly-created Arbat battalion. The head of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of New Nakhchivan and Russia, Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan, is the brother of Catholicas Garegin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. 

The relationship between the Armenian church and the current government has greatly deteriorated in recent years. Following Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Catholicos Garegin II called for Prime Minister Pashinyan’s resignation.

Armenian–Russian relations have also been in freefall since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, with Yerevan seemingly pushing itself away from the Moscow-led CSTO and the Commonwealth of Independent States in favour of closer security ties with the West.