Months ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections, Russia has been expanding its propaganda efforts in the country — a trend confirmed both by experts and by an investigation conducted by Azatutyun. On Telegram, one of the main platforms for Russian influence operations, the investigation identified more than 20 channels posing as Armenian, with subscriber counts ranging from 1,800 to over 36,000. A significant share of these channels were created in Russia over different periods.
Some of them emerged immediately after the 2020 war, regularly publishing positive narratives about Russia while portraying the European Union as a destabilizing force for Armenia. The identified Russian-language channels frequently quote one another, amplify statements by pro-Russian figures, and recycle messaging from Russian state media. Domestic Armenian politics appears as one of their most heavily exploited themes.
RFE/RL Journalists Artak Khulyan investigates how Russia seeks to shape public opinion in Armenia through Telegram networks, coordinated propaganda channels, bots, and pseudo-news platforms. His in-depth report reveals the mechanisms behind this influence system and how it aims to manipulate societal perceptions and deepen polarization ahead of the elections.
The original article is fully available in Armenian on the website of the RFE/RL Armenia bureau. Artak Khulyan prepared this story as part of The Berlin Journalism School’s (BJS) Strengthening Resilience Against Disinformation program, which is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.