EU sends team to Armenia to counter democratic threats ahead of summer elections

The European Union will send a team to Armenia to counter democratic threats ahead of its parliamentary elections in June. 

EU Foreign Affairs Chief, Kaja Kallas, said the deployment of the Hybrid Rapid Response Team came at the request of Yerevan’s government. 

“Supporting democratic resilience in our neighbourhood remains essential. We will not leave Armenia to face foreign interference alone. Democracies under pressure can count on Europe,” she said. 

The decision to send a team to the country of three million comes a week after Armenia’s intelligence service warned of the threat of foreign interference in the upcoming elections on 7 June, according to state news agency Armenpress.

The report said that “various actors” were pressuring Armenians carrying out “economic activities” in an unnamed foreign country to support certain political parties intending to compete in the upcoming elections. 

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The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, warned that the EU “must anticipate” significant Russian involvement in Armenia’s parliamentary elections, The Parliament Magazine reported on 13 March. 

The Civil Contract party led by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is currently leading in polls ahead of the summer election. The opposition is coalescing around the pro-Russian Strong Armenia party led by Russian-Armenian business tycoon Samvel Karapetyan.

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