If Pashinyan Wins the Elections, Russia Must Not Officially Recognize the Results: Zatulin

“If Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wins the upcoming parliamentary elections, Russia should not officially recognize the results,” said Konstantin Zatulin, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration, and Relations with Compatriots.

Zatulin believes that Pashinyan has never hidden his anti-Russian views, and if re-elected, the trend towards a complete break between Armenia and Russia will continue. In an interview with NSN, he emphasized that in this case, Russia should simply not acknowledge the election results.

“He is an unconditional enemy of Russia who, for a certain period, had to disguise his intentions and goals while in power. We allowed ourselves to be lulled by the hopes that ‘he will adapt and love us,’ that he would not go anywhere. But he used us. After all, he never hid his views before becoming Prime Minister. He wrote about the need to free himself from the entire past, from Russia, to withdraw from the CSTO, to leave the Eurasian Union, and to remove our base from Gyumri. It is simply a delusion that we thought he would suddenly take our side or forget his convictions upon coming to power. He is fully consistent in this regard. He is cunning, undoubtedly. Therefore, he does not have to state all this aloud, especially when he meets with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. But now he has thrown away those masks. They were thrown off in 2022 because we entered into confrontation with the West, which he aspires to. And he began to implement that course in an increasingly brazen, expansive, and large-scale manner. His close associates are not even holding back.

“Undoubtedly, if Pashinyan is re-elected, the trend will specifically be to realize Armenia’s final break from the obligations it undertook within the framework of alliances. There will be a transition towards outright anti-Russian positions, further repressions against all those who do not share that perspective, which is at least half of Armenia’s population. Accordingly, this will create problems for Russia and the entire Armenian diaspora around the world. The Russian Federation should not officially recognize the results of the Armenian elections on June 7, 2026, if Pashinyan somehow again brings forward his victory. Sufficient steps have already been taken by Pashinyan to cast doubt on whether these elections will be fair, just, objective, and legal,” Zatulin stated.

He also added that “Pashinyan’s team is leading to a confrontation between the peoples of Russia and Armenia, which will damage relations at not only the political level.”