By David Grigorian

(EurActiv) — In this era of hybrid warfare, Russia has built a formidable arsenal of tools and methods to influence public opinion and politics. Disinformation, playing on contradictions, reverse psychology, and flip-flopping are deployed to confuse the audience and allow Russian propagandists to gain ever-tighter control over the narratives they build.

Meanwhile, Western policymakers have largely failed to recognise these Russian advances let alone counteract them. Nowhere has this failure been so pronounced as in the context of Armenia.

Russian companies’ absolute control of Armenia’s economy—energy, telecommunications, mining, infrastructure, and finance—has provided the Kremlin with almost unlimited influence over Armenia’s domestic and foreign policies.

In 2018, Russians needed to replace a formerly loyal ally in Yerevan, President Serge Sargsyan, after he refused to deliver Nagorno-Karabakh (or Artsakh in Armenian) to Azerbaijan under the so-called Lavrov Plan. The Russians wanted someone willing to give up Artsakh and chose Nikol Pashinyan, a young opposition newspaper editor and college dropout with a thirst for power.

The Kremlin needed an excuse to betray its treaty ally, Armenia, in favour of a newfound business partner, Azerbaijan, which has purchased billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry and took part in a massive money laundering operation known as the Russian Laundromat. A narrative that Armenia has gone down the road of a “colour revolution” was a........

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