Moscow is closely following the legal case against businessman Samvel Karapetyan. The Kremlin press secretary emphasized that Karapetyan is a Russian citizen, and while Russia does not wish to interfere in Armenia’s internal affairs, it is paying full attention to developments involving its citizen. The statement was made by Dmitry Peskov to reporters at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, held June 18–21.

On the night of June 18, businessman Samvel Karapetyan left his Yerevan residence with law enforcement. He was later revealed to be under questioning at the Investigative Committee and was detained for two months that evening, charged with making a public call to usurp the powers of the Armenian government.

A few hours earlier, Karapetyan had issued a statement supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church: “I am with our Church, with our people. No matter how hard they try to discredit it, no power network... I don’t care about them or their electric grid. Everything will be fine. The people will speak, and they will understand their mistake.”

In response, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan posted: “Why have the immoral ‘clergymen’ and their immoral ‘benefactors’ become active? No worries — we will silence them again. Permanently.” He later added that the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) should be nationalized swiftly.