Karapetyan — Samvel Karapetyan addresses reporters on election day (photo Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media)

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Karapetyan Says Armenia Will Be Left ‘without an Owner’ if Russian Military Base Closes

September 15, 2026

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The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

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By Arshaluys Barseghyan

Russian–Armenian tycoon and opposition leader Samvel Karapetyan has said Armenia would be left “without an owner in the region” if Russia removes its military base from Gyumri. Russia has expressed its willingness to remove the base, which has been located in Armenia since the 1940s; in response, Yerevan said it had never made such a request but did not consider the Gyumri site a “vital necessity.”

Karapetyan built his fortune in Russia and entered politics in 2025, founding the Strong Armenia party which is now the largest opposition group in parliament. He made the remarks on 11 September while speaking to journalists outside a court hearing in a criminal case against him, which includes charges of publicly calling for a coup and money laundering.

“Well, put a Turkish base there instead. There has to be a base; the base exists now: either it’s the Russians or the Turks. Decide,” Karapetyan said, responding to a journalist who asked why Armenia should be considered “without an owner” if the country lacks a foreign military base.

“We have Armenian bases,” Karapetyan said after being asked why there should be foreign military there rather than an Armenian base.

The comments came following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 1, after which Putin said Russia was ready to withdraw “if Armenia believes that the Russian military base in Armenia is not needed.”

The issue emerged amid tensions between Yerevan and Moscow that escalated ahead of Armenia’s June elections. A number of issues between the countries remain unresolved, especially surrounding Yerevan’s EU membership ambitions and Moscow’s introduction of trade restrictions. The two countries have agreed to continue talks in the near future.

After Putin’s September 2 statement, Pashinyan said that Armenia did not consider the presence of the Russian base a “vital necessity,” adding that Yerevan would not object if Moscow decided to withdraw it and that Armenia had never itself raised the issue.

The Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri was established in the 1940s and is believed to house more than 3,000 Russian military personnel. It has served as a key Russian military presence in the South Caucasus.

The base has been the subject of several controversies over the years, including allegations involving the detention and abduction of deserters from the Russian military, as well as crimes committed by Russian soldiers outside the base. The most serious such incident was the 2015 killing of seven members of the same family by a Russian soldier.

Following Pashinyan’s remarks, Civil Contract MP Vilen Gabrielyan, chair of the Armenian parliament’s Standing Committee on Defense and Security, said the withdrawal of the base would not negatively affect Armenia’s security because Moscow had failed to fulfill its obligations during Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia in 2021 and 2022.

Gabrielyan did not rule out Armenia eventually asking Russia to withdraw the base, or to pay rent. At the moment, Moscow pays nothing to have the base situated there, but Pashinyan has said that if Russian gas prices increase, Armenia would “also see what we can increase in price, or what there is that has been free until now, after which a price may proportionately emerge.”

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Topics: International Relations

People: Samvel Karapetyan

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“My personal view is that yes, such a financial recalculation — as you put it — could also apply to the base, because, as we know, the territory and maintenance [of the base] are largely covered by the Republic of Armenia,” the Armenian leader said.

Karapetyan, during his press briefing, also addressed the ongoing dispute over the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), which is owned by the Tashir Group, which he owns.

Yerevan sought to take over the company shortly after Karapetyan’s arrest in June 2025, after Karapetyan publicly supported the Armenian Apostolic Church while it had tensions with Pashinyan: a situation which escalated in May 2025.

“Regarding [the] ENA, don’t worry, [the] ENA will return to its rightful owner, and they won’t be able to do anything,” Karapetyan said.

Asked whether the ENA could be sold to foreign investors, he replied that the Armenian authorities first need to “take it before they can sell it.”

“We can sell it, but we are not going to sell it,” Karapetyan said.

Karapetyan refused to give a number of the price his company was offered and insisted that the “ENA is not for sale.”

The government has not publicly disclosed the sum it offered Karapetyan. According to documents obtained by RFE/RL, the offer was 23.3 billion drams ($59 million), on the condition that Karapetyan return more than 23 billion drams ($60 million) in dividends he had received from the company over the previous 10 years.

RFE/RL calculated that this would leave an effective offer of 142 million drams ($360,000) for the ENA shares if the dividends were returned to the company.

In early September, Armenian authorities drafted a bill seeking to declare an overriding public interest in the ENA, paving the way for a state takeover with compensation.

According to legal amendments rushed through parliament in summer 2025, shortly after Karapetyan’s detention in June, if the ENA loses its license, the grid must be recognized as a “publicly overriding interest” and have its value assessed. The current owner, Tashir Group, would then be compensated for the takeover.

In November 2025, Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission voted to revoke the ENA’s electricity distribution license, citing serious violations, and appointed a state interim manager.

In turn, Tashir Group had initiated international arbitration, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation over what it describes as unlawful interference in its investment in Armenia’s power sector.

(This story originally appeared on www.oc-media.org on September 14.)

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