{"id":46209,"date":"2026-05-31T00:28:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=46209"},"modified":"2026-05-31T05:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T05:52:21","slug":"what-do-the-russians-want-leaks-and-information-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/critique\/2026\/05\/31\/46209\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do The Russians Want? Leaks And Information Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The election campaign in Armenia is in full swing, and in just 10 days, we will know the new members of the parliament, including the winners and losers. Political forces are sparing no effort in attacking one another with the harshest accusations, ranging from state treason and acting as foreign agents to branding opponents as \u201cthree-headed monsters\u201d and servants of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem. Parallely, for the past year, information security experts have issued warnings about<\/a> phishing attacks, manipulation, and information warfare, primarily attributed to groups or organisations of Russian origin. Additionally, revelations and investigations by Armenian law enforcement agencies have surfaced, involving accusations of pre-election bribery<\/a> and state treason<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The interplay between foreign policy and domestic political struggles is further complicated by investigations into external influences, primarily from Russia. These investigations examine the preferred candidates of the Russian authorities, the strategies to undermine Pashinyan’s power, and the financiers and operatives involved. Recently, such investigations and leaks have become an integral part of the pre-election campaign. One of the first was the information regarding Russian external influence released<\/a> by the United Kingdom. This included documents<\/a> from the Russian “Social Design Agency” (SDA), which outlined plans for campaigns against Armenia that are “almost certainly” coordinated by the Russian presidential administration. The plans involve attempts to establish pro-Russian organisations in Armenia and to alter or exert influence over the government in favour of pro-Russian figures.<\/p>\n

The next investigative article was published on May 19 by the Russian publication <\/span>The Insider<\/span><\/a>. It discussed various employees from Russian special services, as well as the individuals and structures coordinated by them, who are involved in activities related to Armenia. Among those mentioned are the son of a former Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, employees of the Moscow House in Yerevan, and members of the Russian Federal Security Service.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most interesting aspect of the materials was the information about the parties in the election campaign. According to an investigation, the candidate favoured by Moscow in the elections is Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who holds Russian assets. The Insider reports that Karapetyan was “forced” to enter the electoral race due to “pressure.” It is suggested that he has connections to the Russian Federal Security Service and that the Russian authorities intend to influence the elections through him. The investigation also names another pro-Russian candidate, Gagik Tsarukyan, who leads the Prosperous Armenia party.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that the investigation does not contain even a letter about Robert Kocharyan, who is considered the most pro-Russian candidate, or any members of his team. Kocharyan presents himself as a close confidant of Putin, a favoured individual in Russia, and a proponent of strengthening Russia’s presence in Armenia. According to his declaration, he remains a shareholder<\/a> of Sistema AFK. In this context, the investigation appears to politically benefit Kocharyan in his competition against his main rivals for opposition votes, Karapetyan and Tsarukyan.<\/p>\n

The next investigation<\/a> is by the Dossier centre, which is funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oligarch, political prisoner, and opposition figure who currently resides abroad. This investigation was published on May 25, just a week after the previous one. It also addresses Russian interference. According to Dossier, their findings are based on internal documents from Russian political scientists and political technologists. However, no additional details are provided to allow further verification of this data.<\/p>\n

The investigation confirms that the Kremlin’s preferred candidate is Samvel Karapetyan. It also mentions a “backup” candidate, former Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan, who is linked to the Wings of Unity party. The authors discuss the funding for Tatoyan’s campaign, noting that they are unaware of its source. According to the Dossier, a coalition between Tatoyan and Karapetyan is also a possibility. Notably, the investigation does not mention Robert Kocharyan or his associates. Instead, it primarily targets Kocharyan’s rivals, this time focusing on Tatoyan and Karapetyan.<\/p>\n

On May 24, an information leak of unknown origin appeared on the website  Caucasus Chronicles (\u0425\u0440\u043e\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430 \u041a\u0430\u0432\u043a\u0430\u0437\u0430)<\/a>, discussing the alleged alliance between Karapetyan and Tsarukyan, referred to as “Gyumri 2,” as well as Armenian Ivanishvili. This aligns closely with the government’s narrative, the “Three-Headed Monster”, the Kocharyan, Karapetyan, and Tsarukyan thesis. Notably, as reported by Factor TV, content from this anonymous website is being actively shared by the pro-government Telegram channel Baghramyan 26 and other pro-government news outlets, such as “Haykakan Zhamanak” and Civic.am. Additionally, on May 26, the same website published another article targeting the leaders of the New Force party, Hayk Marutyan and Arman Tatoyan, accusing them of receiving funding from the Russian-based Armenian businessman Artur Soghomonyan.<\/p>\n

Pre-election periods are always intense, marked by political competition, labeling, leaks, and lobbying. In this struggle, many believe that any means are acceptable if the end justifies them. However, Armenian society and its media environment have yet to develop the necessary resources and filters to distinguish between manipulation and genuine investigations effectively. This makes it challenging for them to defend themselves against propaganda attacks and to avoid external interference. The current situation serves as a strong reminder of the significant issues and gaps that persist in the media landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The election campaign in Armenia is in full swing, and in just 10 days, we will know the new members of the parliament, including the winners and losers. Political forces are sparing no effort in attacking one another with the harshest accusations, ranging from state treason and acting as foreign agents to branding opponents as Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":46164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,212],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","category-featured-post","author_posts-gor-madoyan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46212,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46209\/revisions\/46212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}