Pro-Kremlin Billionaire's Arrest Extended in Armenia

The Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia has extended the arrest of Russian citizen and billionaire Samvel Karapetyan for two months. Earlier, he accused the Armenian authorities of severing ties with Russia.

Samvel Karapetyan was arrested on June 19 in Yerevan. He was accused of publicly calling for the seizure of power in Armenia. Before this, the country's Investigative Committee reported on the prevention of an attempted terrorist attack and seizure of power, suspecting the leader of the opposition movement "Sacred Struggle", Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan published a copy of the opposition's "failed" plan to remove him from power on a social network. He believes that the authors of the plan are former presidents of the country Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, Samvel Karapetyan and the head of the Armenian Church Garegin II.

Karapetyan is a Russian protégé. From the pretrial detention center, he accused the Armenian authorities of breaking ties with Russia, emphasizing that reliability, predictability, and honesty are important for Moscow as Yerevan's main ally.

"Instead, Yerevan defected to the European Union, not realizing that Armenia was not and is not expected there. Loudly proclaiming sovereignty at every step, they turned our country into an instrument for asserting someone else's sovereignty," Karapetyan wrote.