The Armenian government has suspended the broadcast of Russia’s leading state TV channel in Armenia due to its unpaid debts to an Armenian government agency overseeing digital broadcast frequencies.
Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, the Minister of High-Technology Industry, announced that Channel One’s retransmission has been “temporarily stopped” due to debt accrued over the past two and a half months. He did not specify the debt amount. He also noted that the suspension covers the national digital package, effectively making it accessible throughout Armenia. Additionally, Channel One’s broadcasts were discontinued by the country’s cable TV networks, managed by private telecom operators, who have yet to explain their decision to join the ban.
This decision was announced the day after the channel aired a program in which senior Russian lawmakers sharply criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his governance. The 20-minute segment included footage of current anti-government protests in Armenia and depicted riot police assaulting an opposition parliamentarian.
Channel One and the Russian government have yet to respond to the ban.
“Every day that Mr. Pashinyan remains in power is a humiliation for Russia in the Caucasus and the entire East,” said Konstantin Zatulin, a lawmaker previously banned from Armenia. Zatulin criticized Pashinyan for undermining the Russian-Armenian alliance, “betraying” the Armenians of Artsakh, and condemned his recent territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. “This was the final straw for the Armenian people,” he asserted.
“He is behaving brazenly,” said another Russian parliamentarian, referring to Pashinyan’s indirect accusations that Moscow aided Azerbaijan in preparing for the 2020 war in Artsakh.
Earlier in March, Yerevan discontinued the retransmission of a daily political talk show broadcast by Russia-1, owing to repeated critiques of Pashinyan by the pro-Kremlin host Vladimir Solovyov.
The government-controlled Television and Radio Broadcasting Network of Armenia accused Solovyov and some guests on his show of breaching a 2020 Russian-Armenian agreement that allowed Russia-1, Channel One, and another Russian channel, Kultura, to broadcast in the region. A similar violation was cited last October after Channel One aired an hour-long program disparaging Pashinyan.
On May 7, Pashinyan warned that he might ban Russian broadcasters if they failed to respect Armenia’s “state order” and national interests. Hayrapetyan earlier suggested that the 2020 agreement needed revision.
The temporary suspension of Channel One broadcasts occurred shortly after Russia recalled its ambassador in Yerevan for consultations amid the ongoing deterioration of the relationship between the two long-time allies, although Moscow did not specify the reason for this action.
In March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Pashinyan’s administration of “leading things to the collapse of Russian-Armenian relations” under Western influence. The unprecedented rift was discussed by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Pashinyan during their meeting on May 8, following a Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow.”
