Simonian, who is a leading member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, first made the accusation in a weekend interview with Armenian state television.
“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,” he claimed. “Now they are trying to use our democracy against us. They say, ‘The Internet is free in your country, we will buy so much advertising on that Internet with our rubles that it will be ours.’”
“We will not allow the Republic of Armenia to be turned into a ‘gubernia’ (a Russian province), we will not be governed like Belarus,” he said.
Moscow has still not reacted to the accusations, unlike the Belarusian Foreign Ministry that summoned the Armenian charge d’affaires in Minsk on Tuesday to hand him a protest note against Yerevan’s “latest unfriendly actions.” Also, a ministry spokesman described Simonian’s jibe as “pre-election populism.”
The Armenian speaker stood by his claims on Wednesday, telling reporters that “the example of Belarus's governance is unacceptable to my country.”
“An attempt to seize power is underway,” he said in another attack on Moscow.
Simonian’s statements came right before and after two European summits in Yerevan seen by the Armenian opposition as a pre-election show of support for Pashinian and his party. Opposition leaders also claim that Pashinian keeps dragging Armenia into the West’s geopolitical standoff with Russia and thus adding to the country’s grave security challenges.
Meeting with Pashinian in Moscow on April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin implied that Armenia would pay a heavy economic price for its government’s continued drift to the European Union. Putin also warned Yerevan against barring what he called pro-Russian opposition groups from running in the June 7 parliamentary elections.
The three main opposition election contenders are led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, former President Robert Kocharian and another wealthy businessman, Gagik Tsarukian. Pashinian’s political allies have branded them as Russian agents.
Pashinian sought to downplay Russian-Armenian tensions following his most recent talks with Putin. Simonian’s remarks could reignite them.