Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, Armenia, 23 November 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE / VLADIMIR SMIRNOV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) claims it has uncovered a plot to stage a coup in the country with links to Russia, Armenian news agency News.Am reported on Wednesday.
The agency cited the Armenian Investigative Committee, which said that at least five Armenian citizens and two former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region of Azerbaijan that was controlled by its Armenian population for over three decades until Azerbaijan recaptured it last year, were involved in the plot.
The suspected plotters are alleged to have recruited other Armenians and former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh to help overthrow the government of Nikol Pashinyan, having promised them monthly payments of €2,150.
The Armenian Investigative Committee alleges the recruits went through three months of training at a camp in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, learning how to use heavy weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. Once at the camp, the men are said to have had their political views assessed and undergone polygraph tests.
According to the investigators, the group had accomplices in Russia, whose identities are yet to be established. Some recruits reportedly refused to take part in the coup attempt once they learned the ultimate objective of their training and returned home voluntarily, according to the NSS.
A court has arrested three of the alleged conspirators, while four more people believed to have been involved in the plot have been placed on the country’s wanted list.
There has been a recent marked cooling in ties between traditional allies Armenia and Russia, with Armenia frustrated by the failure of the Russian peace-keeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia’s decision to freeze its participation in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).
