Russia is stepping up its disinformation campaign to undermine support for Armenia's pro-Western government ahead of parliamentary elections in June 2026. What methods and tactics is Moscow using?
Experts believe that Russia's increased activity is part of a coordinated campaign against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government ahead of elections in Armenia in June next year. While disinformation linked to the Kremlin is nothing new in Armenia, the scale and sophistication of these actions are increasing as the election date approaches.
Targeted messages
“The spread of narratives has become more organized, faster, and the messages are now much more targeted,“ Hasmik Hambartsumyan, editor-in-chief of the independent Armenian fact-checking platform Fact Investigation Platform, told DW. AI-generated images, audio and fake news are appearing in Armenia’s information space for the first time, she added.
“The aim appears to be to undermine trust in Armenian institutions, discredit Armenia’s Western engagement and open up space for political actors more favorable to the Kremlin“, say observers Sopo Gelava and Givi Gigitashvili of the Digital Forensics Lab (DFRLab), which conducts research with open-source software.
Gelava and Gigitashvili call attention to the emergence of “hostile narratives” circulating in Russian and pro-Russian media systems, portraying the Armenian government as corrupt, morally compromised and maintaining secret relations with Western intelligence. These messages attack the country's institutions, and the goal is to undermine Armenia's reputation with the West.
Ambartsumyan adds that another key theme of the pro-Russian messages is the portrayal of the West as a threat to Armenia, and Moscow as the country's only reliable defender. In addition to pro-Russian and Kremlin-linked players, this disinformation campaign also involves actors from Armenia and Turkey, the observations show. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia regained its independence in 1991 and has been under strong Russian influence ever since.
The South Caucasus remains a strategically important region for Moscow
While previous governments maintained close ties with Moscow, the rift occurred after the nationalist movement called the Velvet Revolution brought Pashinyan to power in 2018. Relations have deteriorated further when Armenia accused Russia of failing to fulfill its obligations during Azerbaijan’s armed attacks on Armenia in 2021 and 2022.
In turn, senior Armenian officials have accused Moscow of waging a hybrid war, which Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan expects to intensify further in 2026. Russia rejects accusations that it is interfering in Armenia’s internal affairs. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier this month that Russia “has always respected and will continue to respect the sovereign decisions of every nation.”
A Boom in AI-Generated Content
Russia has used a range of tactics to influence Armenia’s information space — pro-Kremlin botnets, Telegram groups and more. One such network is Matryoshka, which has previously been involved in influence campaigns in the United States, Germany, and Moldova. The investigative publication “The Insider“ notes that Matryoshka began attacking Armenia and Pashinyan as early as June. According to the publication, this marks a “record-breaking lead time“ for the botnets' election campaign.
Since 2023, Matryoshka has been spreading disinformation through AI-generated videos and posts that mimic credible Western media outlets. The bots have been distributing videos on the X and Bluesky platforms that accuse Pashinyan of “destroying Armenia's cultural code“ and promoting “non-traditional values“.
In addition to bots, Russia also uses "doppelganger" techniques - creating websites that mimic established media outlets to spread fabricated content. "DFRLab has documented fabricated scandals and fake stories about corruption spread by newly created websites and social channels that mimic real platforms. Many of their fake copies appeared in a surprisingly short time and work in coordination, Gelava and Gigitashvili from DFRLab have found. They have technical evidence that "these campaigns are linked to Russia," they told DW. In July, the two researchers uncovered a campaign targeting Armenian audiences that falsely claimed that U.S.-backed biolabs were conducting secret military experiments on Armenian civilians with the consent of the Armenian government.
The story was published by londontimes.live, a website designed to look like a Western publication, and according to DFRLab, was being spread by Russian and non-Russian pro-Kremlin actors. The source of the story is the Russian Foundation for Combating Injustice, a group founded in 2021 with the support of Yevgeny Prigozhin that is seen as a disinformation front linked to the Kremlin.
What will happen as the elections approach?
As Armenia’s 2026 parliamentary elections approach, Moscow is employing tactics that have been tried and tested in other post-Soviet states. According to DFRLab, Russia is using a similar strategy in Georgia and Armenia: “In Georgia, Russian narratives were disseminated by government officials and pro-government media outlets, making them part of the government's own communication strategy. In Armenia, however, these narratives are promoted by both local pro-Russian voices and Kremlin-linked external actors targeting an Armenian audience“, Gelava and Gigitashvili say.
A similar approach to that used in Moldova, with Kremlin-led disinformation, has been adopted in Armenia. This is the case, for example, with the non-governmental organization “Eurasia“ in Moldova, which is associated with the pro-Russian tycoon Ilan Shor, who fled the country and is accused of trying to derail Moldova's EU accession process. In this sense, DFRLab warns that some of the tactics documented in Moldova will become more common in Armenia as the date for next year's elections approaches.