{"id":19483,"date":"2026-05-13T16:16:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/?p=19483"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:16:33","slug":"russia-factor-becomes-main-topic-ahead-of-elections-in-armenia-ahmad-shahidov-speaks-to-arb24-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/?p=19483","title":{"rendered":"Russia factor becomes main topic ahead of elections in Armenia \u2013 Ahmad Shahidov speaks to ARB24 Television"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0aGzgymo7l4?si=5ciker2TXOo2wW4j\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nHarsh statements by Armenian government representatives against pro-Russian opposition figures and growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan have triggered new political debates in the region. Lusine Badalyan, a deputy from the ruling \u201cCivil Contract\u201d party, and Arman Babajanyan, leader of the \u201cFor the Republic\u201d party, accused pro-Russian opposition leaders of acting against Armenia\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Political analyst Ahmad Shahidov said in an interview with ARB24 TV that the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia now represent more of a geopolitical struggle than a domestic political race. According to him, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team are trying to frame the elections as a \u201cfight against Russian influence,\u201d portraying figures such as Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, Gagik Tsarukyan and Russian-Armenian oligarch Samvel Karapetyan as political projects of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad Shahidov noted that the rise of anti-Russian rhetoric inside Armenia indicates a changing geopolitical balance in the South Caucasus. According to the political analyst, as Moscow\u2019s influence in the region weakens, Western powers are increasing efforts to strengthen their positions in the region through Armenia, and this process is likely to become one of the main sources of political confrontation in the near future.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19484\" src=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026-475x267.jpg 475w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19485\" src=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a-475x267.jpg 475w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026a.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19486\" src=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b-475x267.jpg 475w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026b.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19487\" src=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c-475x267.jpg 475w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026c.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harsh statements by Armenian government representatives against pro-Russian opposition figures and growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan have triggered new political debates in the region. Lusine Badalyan, a deputy from&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[232,220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/arb24_13.05.2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19488,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions\/19488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}