Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Greets CIA Director William Burns, Yerevan, July 15, 2022. Photo: X/@armgov.
By Valeriy Krylko – Nov 11, 2024
Armenia is another battleground of the new cold war
In July 2022, CIA Director William Burns made a surprise visit to Yerevan in Armenia. He was there officially to support his Agency’s financing of “non-profit organizations” whose stated purpose is to “spread democratic values.”
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the time announced provision of grants totaling more than $100 million for NGOs in Armenia.[1]
In 2021, the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cutout that specializes in fomenting regime change and propaganda, provided grants totaling $2,702,445 to Armenian organizations.
Armenia has emerged as a key battleground in the new Cold War, with the U.S. working to pry it away from the Russian orbit.
A March 2024 RAND Corporation report suggested that the U.S. could provide Armenia with short-range air defense technologies and counter-drone systems and that the Pentagon could initiate military training programs to help engender greater loyalty to the U.S. Also it was suggested that the State Department could work to try to facilitate better relations between Armenia and Turkey, a traditional rival to Russia.
Armenia’s current Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has begun to distance Armenia from Russia somewhat because of Russia’s perceived inaction as Azerbaijan, Armenia’s historic rival, crushed Armenian-backed resistance forces in Nagorno Karabakh.
With U.S. backing, Azerbaijan has aimed to occupy Nagorno-Karabakh to profit from its natural resources and mineral wealth, which includes gold and copper.
Armenia’s close ties with Russia were established in the 19th century when Russia functioned as a protector of beleaguered Christian populations in the Ottoman Empire. In the 20th century, Armenia became part of the Soviet Union and close bilateral relations were established with the Russian Federation after Armenia gained independent nationhood in 1991.[2]
During his visit to Yerevan, Burns met with the Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, and Prime Minister Pashinyan.
Many Armenians were suspicious of Burns’s true purpose in visiting Yerevan, believing he was there to undermine the country’s sovereignty.
Nikol Pashinyan has been a highly polarizing figure who is distrusted by many Armenians.
Pashinyan came to power in the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” when he earned the reputation as “Soros’s man.” George Soros is the billionaire Hungarian-American investor who has financed pro-Western color revolutions across Eastern Europe and Central Asia and is a gung-ho proponent of the war in Ukraine.
Armen Grigoryan has faced particular criticism for his role in shepherding Armenia’s defeat in the Second Karabakh War.
Although he had a hand in ending the conflict, it is believed that the decisions on unpopular measures in this matter were dictated from outside. There is indirect evidence of this: Grigoryan is the most steadfast tin soldier of Pashinyan’s team. At a time when the personnel of the power bloc are openly shaking, the chair under this guy does not even wobble.
In 2018-2020, five heads of the National Security Service of Armenia were replaced. And one of the NSS directors of that period, Mikael Hambardzumyan, who had the share of leading the special service during the hottest phase of the Second Karabakh War, served in his post for only one month—from October 8 to November 8, 2020. Grigoryan’s predecessor, Argishti Kyaramyan, was appointed to the high position of the head of the state security bodies at the age of 29, without any experience in the special services or specialized education.
Thus, the leaders changed and the responsibility for the defeat in the war was smeared with a thin layer.
However, the process of fragmentation of the power bloc with the separation of a foreign intelligence agency, which Grigoryan so joyfully announced, is likely to lead to even worse consequences for the state security, especially if the new structure becomes a place for distribution of U.S. grants.
Pashinyan ‘Betrayed’ Karabakh Armenians Following West’s Empty ‘Political Declarations’
Speaking of the cadre steadfastness of the head of the Security Council, it seems to be connected primarily with the fact that he is a link between the Armenian leadership and Western, primarily American, special services.
This is eloquently evidenced by the facts: Not long after his appointment on October 24, 2018, Grigoryan personally met U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton at Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport.
Bolton is infamous for promoting all kinds of political skullduggery. He once stated: “As someone who has planned more than one coup—not here, of course, but in other countries—I can tell you that it takes painstaking work.”[3]
The process of the U.S. ideological expansion in Armenia did not start in 2022 or even in 2015. However, the active injection of funds combined with Armenia’s turn away from former allies have been taking place over the past two years.
The fact is that, since gaining sovereignty, the Republic of Armenia has pursued a policy of “complimentarism,” which implies cooperation with two or more subjects of international relations, including those competing with each other for political, ideological or economic reasons.
An Armenian scholar wrote that complimentarism national diplomacy “for many years allowed for a very adequate response to many challenges and threats in conditions of a rather narrow space for geopolitical maneuver.”
The development of a military-political alliance with the Russian Federation did not cause any contradictions with the parallel development of partnership relations with the EU, the United States and the NATO bloc. Moreover, such an approach was perceived in Armenia’s political-forming circles as a certain “balance of power between regional and extra-regional actors that have been established since the 1990s.”
It is noteworthy that Moscow has never forced Yerevan to choose, to accept one of the parties, which cannot be said about the policy of the collective West, specifically the European Union.
For example, at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November 2013, there were plans to sign an association agreement between Armenia and the European Union but, on September 3, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Serzh Sargsyan (the leader overthrown in the Soros-backed “Velvet Revolution” of 2018) confirmed Yerevan’s desire to join the Customs Union and join the process of forming the Eurasian Economic Union (independent alliance of Central Asian countries).[4]
This decision caused criticism from European structures and expert circles, which stated that Armenia had allegedly “practically interrupted negotiations with Europe,” which made it impossible to initial the association agreement with the EU.[5]
Outside forces have generally been called upon to “help” Armenia to turn away from Russia. It is not difficult to trace where and for what funds set aside for these are spent.
There are more than 9,000 non-governmental organizations operating in Armenia today. Most of these organizations have external funding. They are divided into several types, according to the nature of their activities. Here is an example of the most representative ones.
Organizations that work with targeted tasks in the socio-political and electoral spheres. Among them are International IDEA, World Vision Armenia, International Organization for Migration (IOM), NDI, IREX, Open Society Institute (OSI) and others.
The Armenian branch of the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation (OSIAFA) has traditionally had a relatively large influence on Armenia’s public sector and media sphere. Under the patronage of the Soros Foundation, more than 100 NGOs operate in Armenia, influencing the internal and foreign policy of the republic. The Armenian branch of the Foundation officially separated from the global network in 2022.[6]
Foundations that shape the information agenda and public opinion in Armenia also have great influence: “National Endowment for Democracy” (NED), “European Endowment for Democracy” (EED), “National Institute for Democracy” (NDI), and others. They finance media resources, including the International Network of Journalists “Umbrella,” the information and analytical website Evnreport.com, the newspaper of the current Prime Minister “Armenian Time” (until 2018), etc.
Whether Armenia’s statehood can still be saved under the current environment is a big question. The protests in the country are not subsiding, and the external threat from Azerbaijan remains critically important. Armenia cannot survive without Russian support. However, the American actors have already prepared methodologies by which the pre-trained activists will be able to accuse the Russian Federation of this.
- USAID has a history of fronting for CIA activities. ↑
- As an example of the close alliance, Armenia sent military doctors and engineers to Syria as part of Russia’s military intervention in support of Bashar al-Assad. ↑
- https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/07/12/jake-tapper-john-bolton-debate-january-6-coup-attempt-sot-lead-vpx.cnn
- https://www.ra.am/archives/2691/?ysclid=m0hsw21b35270849876 ↑
- https://aze.az/news_ekspert_armenii_ne_96887.html ↑
- https://newsarmenia.am/news/armenia/armyanskiy-filial-fonda-sorosa-otdelilsya-ot-globalnoy-organizatsii-/?ysclid=m0htyqkcr356228109 ↑
