Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that he will not attend the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, citing the start of Armenia’s parliamentary election campaign. The decision comes at the close of a week in which Yerevan hosted the 8th European Political Community Summit and the first-ever EU-Armenia bilateral summit, signed strategic partnership declarations with France, the United Kingdom, Croatia, and Bulgaria, and welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Armenia for the first time. Russia has responded with sharpening rhetoric from senior officials, the formal summoning of Armenia’s ambassador in Moscow, and warnings of political and economic consequences, while a parallel diplomatic rift between Armenia and Belarus has further intensified.
Speaking at a press briefing, Pashinyan said he had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin during his April 1 visit to Moscow that he would not be able to participate in the May 9 events due to the start of Armenia’s election campaigning period.
“During my visit to Russia in April, I informed the President of Russia that, due to the campaigning period, I would not be able to participate in the May 9 events,” he said.
He noted that the official campaign period for Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections begins on May 8, and the ruling Civil Contract party has already announced that its members, including the prime minister, will be campaigning in Syunik Province on May 8 and 9. On Tuesday, Pashinyan confirmed that he will continue pursuing EU membership for Armenia if Civil Contract wins the upcoming polls.
Pashinyan also reiterated Armenia’s position regarding the war in Ukraine, stressing that Yerevan is not an ally of Russia on the issue.
“As for the visit of the President of Ukraine, I have previously made statements on this topic. We have sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and I have said that on the issue of Ukraine we are not allies with Russia,” he said.
He emphasized that Armenia’s approach is based on its own interests and humanitarian considerations.
The April 1 talks in Moscow had been notably tense. Putin publicly warned Yerevan against barring what he called pro-Russian opposition groups from the June 7 elections, and signaled that Armenia would face severe economic consequences for its continued drift toward the European Union, citing the country’s heavy dependence on Russia for trade and energy.
The week in Yerevan that followed marked the largest international political event Armenia has held since its independence. The 8th Summit of the European Political Community drew more than 40 heads of state and government to the Armenian capital on May 4, co-chaired by Pashinyan and António Costa, President of the European Council, under the theme “Building the Future: Unity and Stability in Europe.” Attendees included French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the first leader from a non-European country to participate in the forum. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev addressed the summit via video link from Baku rather than attending in person.
The day after the summit, Yerevan hosted the first-ever EU-Armenia bilateral summit, where the two sides adopted a 44-point joint declaration covering connectivity in energy, transport, and digital cooperation, alongside expanded political and security ties. On April 21, the Council of the European Union had agreed to establish a civilian European Union partnership mission in Armenia (EUPM Armenia) under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, with a two-year initial mandate to support Armenia in facing multi-layered threats including foreign information manipulation, cyberattacks, and illicit financial flows. EU investments in Armenia under the Global Gateway strategy are expected to reach €2.5 billion.
The same week saw Armenia sign strategic partnership declarations with France, the United Kingdom, Croatia, and Bulgaria. During Macron’s state visit on May 5, Armenia and France signed a joint declaration on strategic partnership, with Pashinyan stating that the document “creates new opportunities” to deepen existing cooperation, and Macron declaring that France has worked “to modernize Armenia’s armed forces and strengthen its sovereignty.” Additional agreements covered military technology research, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors, and the French University Foundation in Armenia. Macron also used the visit to call on Europe to help Armenia secure its borders independently, a notable framing given that approximately 4,000 Russian troops remain stationed in Armenia, including the 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, under an agreement extended through 2044.
Speaking at the Yerevan Dialogue international forum held alongside the summit, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan offered the clearest articulation yet of the strategic shift underway. “For decades, if not centuries, we always believed that in this hostile environment we needed a strong big brother, a friend who could protect us,” he said. “When the time came and we truly needed the protection of that big friend, the assistance did not arrive, and this significantly changed our foreign policy outlook.” Mirzoyan said Armenia has reduced its political, economic, and energy dependence on a single center, and noted that the country has now established strategic partnerships with the European Union, China, and Kazakhstan, while developing close relations with India.
The Russian response began sharpening on May 7. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the Armenian authorities had broken their promise not to take steps against Russia, referring to alleged assurances given by Pashinyan during visits to Moscow. She charged that Armenia “served as a rostrum” for Zelenskyy and stated that his arrival in Yerevan “showed the citizens of Armenia what the EU had in store for them.” Zakharova warned that Armenia’s current course would lead to “irreversible involvement in Brussels’ anti-Russian line, with all the ensuing political and economic consequences,” and accused European officials of interfering in Armenia’s internal affairs by signaling support for Pashinyan’s government ahead of the elections.
Kremlin presidential aide Yuri Ushakov went further, telling reporters that “in Yerevan, they are trying to sit on two chairs, which is regrettable in Moscow,” and recalling that the April 1 talks with Pashinyan had been ones where “all the dots were set.” Ushakov made the remarks in response to a question about Armenia’s signing of the strategic partnership declaration with the United Kingdom, framing the broader European pivot as detrimental to bilateral relations.
The Russian response also escalated beyond rhetoric. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia Gurgen Arsenyan, where Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin delivered a formal protest over what Moscow described as the “categorical unacceptability” of providing Zelenskyy a platform to voice “terrorist threats” against Russia. The ministry stated that the absence of any negative assessment from Yerevan over Zelenskyy’s remarks “does not correspond to the partnership nature of Russian-Armenian relations.”
Tensions involving other Russian allies have intensified in parallel. A diplomatic rift between Armenia and Belarus sharpened ahead of the European engagement in Yerevan.
On May 2, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan accused Russia of attempting to engineer a power grab in Armenia through the upcoming parliamentary elections, claiming that Moscow is using ruble-funded online advertising to influence the June 7 vote. “While in Ukraine they are trying to advance their interests through military means, in Armenia there is an attempt at a political operation, an attempt to seize power,” Simonyan said. “We will not allow the Republic of Armenia to be turned into a ‘gubernia,’ we will not be governed like Belarus.” Pashinyan’s political allies have branded the three main opposition election contenders, led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, former President Robert Kocharyan, and businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, as Russian agents.
In response, Belarus summoned Armenia’s chargé d’affaires Artur Sargsyan to the Foreign Ministry and delivered a formal protest note. On May 5, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ruslan Varankov described Simonyan’s remarks as “nothing more than pre-election populism and a desperate attempt to distract public attention from severe domestic problems.” Zakharova, in her own response, accused Simonyan of harboring “inhuman envy” of Belarus’s economic and industrial achievements.
Relations between Armenia and Belarus have been strained since 2024, following remarks by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a visit to occupied Artsakh, where he said he and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had discussed before the 2020 war the possibility of winning the conflict and that the time had come to “revive those territories.” Following those statements, Pashinyan declared that neither he nor any Armenian official would visit Belarus while Lukashenko remained in office.
