In early April, the “Eurasia – Territory of Traditional Values” forum was held in Moscow, attended by approximately 600 representatives from the government, public sector, and business community, including 100 journalists. The event was organized by “Eurasia,” an organization linked to the Russian government. The forum addressed the ideological objectives of the Russian Federation in recent years, namely, the contrast between “traditional values” and Western ideals, as well as unified Eurasian space with post-Soviet nations.
Media was one of the central themes of the forum, which featured Armenian media specialists among the attendees. Tigran Kocharyan, the editor-in-chief of AlphaNews.am, expressed the need to generate a “media buzz” around Russian initiatives in Armenia and advocated for more extensive coverage of these initiatives. He suggested that Russia should establish a “fact-checking organization” in Armenia. Notably, Russia ranks among the countries with the lowest press freedom indices worldwide, and the free press faces systematic pressure from the Russian authorities.
Media.am reviewed three Armenian media outlets that participated in the “Eurasia’s” forum to analyze their coverage of key topics related to Armenian-Russian relations. As a case study, we focused on the recently adopted law by the RA National Assembly regarding the initiation of the EU accession process, considering the strong reactions from the Russian authorities.
What does the law on “Accession to the EU” define?
The draft law on the launch of the Republic of Armenia’s accession process to the European Union was proposed by the “EU vote” civic initiative, which collected the necessary number of signatures for it. On January 9, the Government of the Republic of Armenia approved it. The text of the law consists of only a few lines and is limited to announcing the commencement of the Republic of Armenia’s accession process to the EU.
The opposition criticized the law, arguing that it was merely a declaration and should not be considered an actual law. Media.am found that the draft law, in its structure, did not fully comply with legal requirements. Nevertheless, the National Assembly adopted it on March 26.
What is “Eurasia”?
The autonomous non-profit organization “Eurasia” was established to strengthen integration processes in the post-Soviet space. It is led by Alena Arshinova, a member of the Russian State Duma and the ruling United Russia party. She became a MP at the age of 26 and identifies herself as a representative of the “Putin generation,” Putin has been president for so long that an entire generation has gone to kindergarten, school, university, and built their careers under his leadership.
Mikael (Mika) Badalyan, an Armenian national who presents himself as an opposition activist in Armenia, is a board member of “Eurasia”, which is affiliated with Russia’s ruling party. In 2022, he was arrested on charges of disseminating false information about terrorism. Additionally, in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, he sold masks to the state while evading taxes.
Voices from Moscow and Yerevan on EU Integration
We analyzed three Armenian news websites, AlphaNews.am, Hayeli.am, and Yerevan.today, that took part in the Eurasia Forum and that had text content accessible for web scraping and quantitative analysis. Our study focused on their articles and reports regarding the law that initiated the EU accession process
A total of 189 articles published between January and April 2025 were analyzed. Out of these, 128 articles included the opinions of experts, officials, or public figures. Additionally, 47 articles were editorial or authorial pieces, while 14 were purely news articles without any opinions or assessments.
Types of articles on the law launching the EU accession process.
Notably, in the case of AlphaNews.am, the majority of individuals expressing an opinion—37 in total—were from Russia, including 14 Russian officials. In contrast, only 6 of the individuals voicing their views were from the EU or Armenia.
In 25 of the publications on Yerevan.today, the contributors expressing their opinions were primarily from Armenia (25), followed by Russia (13) and Europe (3). In contrast, the texts on Hayeli.am featured a nearly equal number of Armenian and Russian speakers, with 22 contributors from Armenia and 18 from Russia.
Country distribution of speakers quoted by the websites.
It is noteworthy that Hayeli.am had very little original content. More than half of its articles—44 in total—were reposts. Out of these, 7 articles were sourced from social media, while 37 came from various media outlets. Among the reviewed content, Hayeli.am most frequently reposted materials from the “Past” daily newspaper, with 13 articles. It also shared three articles each from “Hraparak” and “Armenpress.”
Kremlin-affiliated experts
It is noteworthy that while the Russian perspective was frequently presented in opinion articles across all three media outlets, AlphaNews.am primarily reported on the law from a Russian viewpoint. The website often featured interviews with Russian experts, who, however, can hardly be considered independent.
For instance, political scientist Alexander Asafov is a member of the Kremlin-dependent Public Chamber, and his articles (1, 2) are featured on the official website of the ruling United Russia party.
Another political scientist, Andrei Areshev, is affiliated with the Strategic Culture Foundation, which is currently under Western sanctions. This foundation collaborates with the official periodical newspaper of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, a report by the U.S. State Department indicates that the foundation is linked to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Two political scientists, Dmitry Suslov and Fyodor Lukyanov, who were interviewed by AlphaNews, are presenters (1, 2) on Russian state television channels that operate under Kremlin control; both are listed on Canada’s sanctions list. Additionally, the EU sanctions include Marat Bashirov, an expert who previously served as the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian-controlled Luhansk People’s Republic.
Among the AlphaNews experts were:
- Nikolai Starikov: an author of conspiracy books and representative of the “systemic” opposition who works in conformity with the Russian government,
- Vladimir Kireev: head of the analytical department at the International Eurasian Movement, which was founded by Alexander Dugin, one of the best known authors of Putin’s ideology,
- Vladimir Novikov: Head of the Caucasus Department at the Institute of CIS Countries, which State Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin leads,
- Konstantin Tasits: an employee at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, a center established by the Kremlin with funding from the state budget.
All the aforementioned experts discussed the challenges surrounding Armenia’s potential membership in the EU, highlighting its lack of feasibility and the inherent incompatibility between the EU and the EAEU. Some experts suggested that Russian influence might offer Armenia greater security compared to Western influence. One expert stated that the route to EU membership essentially leads to Turkey.
Focus: Russia
The majority of the reviewed 189 articles focused on four main points:
- Joining the EU is unrealistic, a fairy tale,
- Leaving the EAEU and joining the EU would be extremely harmful, even destructive for the country and economy,
- Armenia cannot be a member of the EU and the EAEU at the same time,
- EUis not interested in Armenia, or if interested, only to put pressure on Russia.
These perspectives primarily echo statements made by Russian officials regarding the incompatibility of the EU and the EAEU, as well as the threats to Armenia’s economy should it lose the “privileges” associated with the EAEU.
It is noteworthy that Armenia’s efforts to diminish Russia’s influence are frequently perceived as misguided and potentially detrimental to the country. Russian foreign policy generally adopts a confrontational tone when addressing its neighbors, following a pattern that implies “resisting Russia will lead to destruction.”
Armenia has been warned about the potential for economic collapse, increasing poverty, and an impending energy crisis. It is noteworthy that the frequently speculated story of becoming a “second Ukraine” was sometimes voiced. For example, Hayeli.am reported on a post by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, who is known for making provocative threats on social media in recent years. In his post, he emphasized the importance of the CSTO in ensuring Armenia’s security. He ridiculed the European Union for supporting Ukraine, which he referred to as a “candidate for paradise.” Additionally, another article published on the same website warned that Prime Minister Pashinyan had initiated a process of “Ukrainization,” implying the destruction of Armenia.
And on AlphaNews.am, Russian experts drew parallels with Ukraine’s movement towards Europe (1, 2).
The Armenian opposition viewpoints included in the articles studied also echoed these narratives but emphasized Armenia’s multi-vector policy, which the country also pursued under Robert Kocharyan and especially Serzh Sargsyan. The websites Hayeli.am and Yerevan.Today, which presented the opposition’s perspective in more detail, wrote that there is already a functioning mechanism for deepening relations with the EU: the Armenia-European Union Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, which was signed in 2017.
These websites frequently criticized the current government’s short-sighted and unrealistic policies. They highlighted concerns that the law aimed at initiating the EU accession process was being used solely as a tool for re-election. Additionally, there were speculations suggesting that this law could be used to steer Armenia towards Turkey.
The viewpoint of the government, which did not communicate a clear message about the objectives of the EU accession law, or other positive perspectives regarding the law in general, has been discussed in 15 out of 189 total articles.
Two of the three websites reviewed, Hayeli.am and Yerevan.Today, offered perspectives from both Russia and Armenia, with Yerevan.Today primarily amplifying the opposition’s voice.AlphaNews primarily highlighted the views of Russian officials and Kremlin-aligned experts in its coverage of the law regarding Armenia’s EU membership.
The reviewed websites portrayed the law as both impractical and harmful. A shared perspective among all three news outlets was the belief that Russia is the sole source of security and economic growth for Armenia.
The data collected for the article can be found here: Yerevan.Today (new, archived), Hayeli.am, Alphanews.am.
