A senior ministry official, Mikhail Kalugin, said it is having a negative impact on Russian-Armenian economic ties.
“We raise this issue in our contacts with official representatives of the republic,” Kalugin told the Russia Today news agency. “We emphasize that Samvel Karapetyan has been in custody for six months without a court verdict.”
“We also convey signals that in this situation other Russian entrepreneurs have become cautious about assessing the future of their projects in Armenia and are questioning the sustainability of its investment climate, which is unlikely to help maintain the upward momentum in bilateral trade,” he said in an interview published on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
Karapetian was arrested on June 18 hours after condemning Pashinian’s attempts to depose the top clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church and vowing to defend it “in our way.” Law-enforcement authorities claim that the statement constituted a call for a violent overthrow of the government.
They also charged the tycoon with tax evasion, fraud and money laundering in July after he decided to set up a new opposition group that will run in the elections due in June 2026. He rejects all charges as politically motivated.
Karapetian’s Mer Dzevov (In Our Way) movement was officially unveiled in late August. Analysts expect it to be one of the ruling Civil Contract party’s main election challengers.
As part of their crackdown on Karapetian, the Armenian authorities also effectively seized in July the country’s national electric utility owned by his Tashir Group. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, defended the company’s track record late last month. But she stopped short of explicitly criticizing what Karapetian’s legal team has denounced as an illegal “expropriation” of his biggest asset in Armenia.
Moscow has also been careful not to publicly demand his release from jail. Nevertheless, Pashinian’s political allies have accused him of plotting to overthrow the government on the Kremlin’s orders.
Kalugin revealed that Russian diplomats based in Yerevan have repeatedly visited Karapetian in custody, most recently “in early December.”
“We receive, including through his lawyers and relatives, all the necessary information about Samvel Karapetian's health,” added the official. “He reports feeling well and demonstrates optimism and a fighting spirit.”
In another statement released from jail on Monday, the 60-year-old tycoon again lambasted Armenia’s ruling “small clique” and its domestic and foreign policies. He pledged, among other things, to repair Armenia’s relations with Russia.
“By making a humiliating ‘friendship’ with Azerbaijan and Turkey, we will not have real peace; by conspiring against Russia, we will not feel safe in the region; and by ignoring the vital interests of Iran and Georgia, we will not have friends in difficult times,” he wrote.