The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don issued 425 convictions under Russia's "terrorism" laws in the first half of 2026, accounting for more than a third of all such rulings nationwide, according to a study by the human rights project First Department and the independent Parubets Analytics research centre.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused his predecessors—former presidents Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Serzh Sargsyan—of concealing the truth about the Karabakh settlement from the Armenian people. At a briefing in Yerevan, the head of the Armenian government noted that all these politicians in opposition to the current government recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan but did not disclose this information to the public.
Furthermore, the Armenian Prime Minister sharply criticized the opposition, claiming that its rhetoric could provoke a new military conflict with Azerbaijan. According to him, even those opposition representatives who call themselves "pro-Kremlin" and claim not to be opposed to peace intend to reconsider the agreements already reached, given the opportunity.
Pashinyan also expressed the opinion that some of the opposition's statements are being prepared outside of Armenia, while his opponents are merely voicing ready-made talking points. According to him, such a position is tantamount to a policy of revising the world, which risks further escalation, even leading to war with catastrophic consequences.