Russian Foreign Ministry: Armenia’s Guarantees on Russian Business Contradict Reality

The Armenian side regularly assured that nothing threatens Russian investments in the republic, but these statements do not coincide with reality in all, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said. As an example, he cited the nationalization of CJSC “Electric Networks of Armenia”, which belongs to the Russian-Armenian businessman, head of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan.

The ruling team is trying to justify its actions with slogans of “fighting corruption”, returning illegally acquired funds to the treasury, and striving to improve the efficiency of the company. Their veracity, however, is highly questionable. In fact, it is more like a politically motivated massacre of one of the competitors in the domestic arena, said Mikhail Galuzin.

According to him, before Samvel Karapetyan joined the political life of Armenia, there were no claims to his business, and the new managers “did not succeed much at the head of the enterprise, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were invested.”.

“Electric Networks of Armenia” is Samvel Karapetyan’s largest asset in Armenia. CJSC serves more than 1 million consumers and is the only buyer of electricity from all generating companies and its sole seller to subscribers throughout the country. In June 2025, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the company deliberately created an energy crisis to stoke internal discontent in the country. Samvel Karapetyan was arrested the same month on charges of calling for the seizure of power. Then, the Armenian parliament passed a law allowing the nationalization of Electric Grid, and the authorities appointed a temporary manager of the company.

Lucine Balasian