The confrontation between the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pachinian, and the Russian-Armenian oligarch Samvel Karapet, arrested on June 18 and whose fate is scrutinized by Moscow, has crossed a new course. The Armenian Parliament adopted in the second and last reading, Thursday, July 3, a bill to nationalize the only electricity company in the country, electrical networks of Armenia (ENA), which belongs to the powerful Tashir group, itself owned by Mr. Karapetyan.
The text, adopted by 65 votes for and 27 against, intervenes two weeks after the billionaire’s arrest, accused of having called for the overthrow of the government, and eight days after the Armenian authorities announced that they have thwarted a “Coup d’etat”. About fifteen people, including two archbishops of the Apostolic Church, were arrested. Nikol Pachinian denounced a “Oligarchic criminal clergy” whose purpose would be “Destabilize the Republic of Armenia and take power”.
Arrived in Armenia on June 14, Samvel Karapetyan, who resides in Moscow and appears in the Forbes classification of the world’s largest fortunes, had supported the highest religious dignitary in the country, Karékine II, whom the Prime Minister had just called to overthrow. Karékine II has repeatedly criticized Nikol Pachinian for her conflict management in Haut-Karabakh, the separatist enclave taken over in full by Azerbaijan after a flash military offensive in September 2023.
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