Experts say Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government are being targeted by an increase in disinformation ahead of Armenian parliamentary elections next June. The sheer volume of messages suggests that the Russia-linked activity is part of a coordinated campaign rather than isolated cases.
While Kremlin-linked propaganda is not new in Armenia, both the scale and sophistication of recent efforts have been described as intensifying as the elections approach.
“The spread of narratives has become more organized, disseminated more rapidly and significantly more targeted,” said Hasmik Hambardzumyan, editor-in-chief of the independent Armenian fact-checking media outlet. fact checking platform, Told DW.
He said that AI-generated photos, audio and deepfakes are appearing in Armenia’s information space for the first time.
“The goal appears to be to undermine trust in Armenian institutions, discredit Armenia’s Western involvement, and open up political space for more Kremlin-friendly actors,” said Sopo Gelva and Givi Gigitashvili, researchers at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), which conducts open-source research.
Gelava and Gigitashvili highlight the emergence of “hostile narratives” circulating in the Russian and pro-Russian media ecosystem that depict the Armenian government as corrupt, morally compromised, or secretly aligned with Western intelligence. These messages target Armenian institutions domestically and attempt to undermine Armenia’s reputation in the West.
Growing rift between Armenia, Russia
Hambardzumyan said another major theme of pro-Russian messages was to portray the West as a threat to Armenia and Moscow as the country’s only reliable protector. Based on his research, he said that Azerbaijani and Turkish actors remain active players, followed by pro-Russian and Kremlin-linked actors.
Armenia, a small post-Soviet state in the South Caucasus, has long been under strong Russian influence since gaining independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
While previous governments had maintained close ties with Moscow, a rift between the nations emerged after Pashinyan was brought to power in 2018 by a nationwide movement known as the Velvet Revolution. Relations deteriorated further when Armenia accused Russia and the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization – an intergovernmental military alliance of several post-Soviet states similar to NATO – of failing to meet their security obligations during Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia in 2021 and 2022.
Despite the political distance between the nations, the South Caucasus remains strategically important for Moscow.
Russia rejects allegations of interference
High-ranking Armenian officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of waging a “hybrid war”.
“That hybrid war periodically intensifies, for example, when various commentators on Russian TV channels, often unfortunately people with distantly Armenian-sounding surnames, try to change the government in Armenia, announce rallies, and so on,” Armenian parliamentary speaker Alan Simonyan said during a press briefing earlier this year.
At the time, Simonyan predicted that such interference “will become even more active” ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections.
Russia has denied allegations that it is interfering in national affairs. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova Said In November that Russia “has always respected and will always respect the sovereign decisions of any nation.”
The rise of AI-generated videos and posts
Russia is employing multiple strategies to influence Armenia’s information sector, including pro-Kremlin bot networks and Telegram groups, all based on the same narrative.
One network is Matryoshka, which was previously involved in influence operations in the US, Germany and Moldova. According to the investigation outlet insiderMatryoshka has started Has been targeting Armenia and Pashinyan since June. According to the publication, this marks a “record lead time” for the bot network’s pre-election activity.
Launched in 2023, Matryoshka spreads misinformation through AI-generated videos and posts that mimic credible Western media. Bots have circulated the clip on social media networks such as X and Bluesky, accusing Pashinyan of “destroying Armenia’s cultural code” and promoting “non-traditional values of tolerance”.
Beyond bot activity, Russian actors are also using “doppelganger” techniques, creating websites that mimic established media outlets to distribute fabricated content.
“DFRLab has documented fabricated scandals and false corruption stories disseminated through newly created, fake websites and social channels, many of which emerged within a short time frame and amplified each other in a coordinated manner,” DFRLab researchers said, adding that available technical evidence “suggests that these campaigns are linked to Russia.”
In July, two researchers open A campaign is targeting Armenian audiences and presenting a false claim that US-backed laboratories were conducting secret military experiments on Armenian civilians with the consent of the Armenian leadership.
The narrative was published by londontimes.live, a site resembling a Western publication, and according to DFRLab it was disseminated by Russian and non-Russian pro-Kremlin actors. The story was traced to the Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice, a group founded in 2021 with the support of Yevgeny Prigozhin and widely seen as a Kremlin-aligned disinformation front.
Prigozhin, former leader of The Wagner Group, a private Russian mercenary organization previously active in Ukraine and elsewhere, was presumed dead after a suspicious plane crash in 2023.
What will happen as the elections approach?
Ahead of Armenia’s 2026 parliamentary elections, Moscow is applying tactics tested in other post-Soviet states. DFRLab researchers noted that Russia’s “strategic strategy is very similar” to that in neighboring Georgia and Armenia.
“In Georgia, Russian narratives were amplified by government figures and government-linked media, making them part of the government’s own communications strategy,” Gelava and Gigitashvili said. “In Armenia, these narratives are pushed by a mix of local pro-Russian voices and Kremlin-linked outside actors who target Armenian audiences from outside the country.”
This approach makes Armenia similar to Moldova, where Kremlin-originated actors, including ANO Evraziya, have been active. ANO Evrazia is linked to Ilan Shor, a pro-Russian fugitive tycoon accused of attempting to derail Moldova’s EU accession process.,
DFRLab warns that some of the strategies documented in Moldova “are being repeated and may be intensified” as Armenia approaches 2026 elections.
Edited by: Maren Sass, Jess Smee