crosshairs of Moscow,<\/a> which has long projected influence over Armenian politics and the economy.<\/p>\nSamvel Karapetyan casts his ballot. Photograph: Hayk Baghdasaryan\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Many Armenians became disillusioned with Russia after Moscow failed to come to their aid when Azerbaijan seized Nagorno-Karabakh despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the region. The fallout prompted Pashinyan to suspend Armenia\u2019s participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of six post-Soviet states, including Russia, marking the most dramatic rupture in relations with Moscow since the country\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the election, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Armenia, which has not formally applied for EU membership, was heading down the same path as Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where did it start?\u201d Putin said, referring to Armenia\u2019s EU push. \u201cWith Ukraine seeking to join the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armenian officials and analysts have accused Russia of attempting to influence the election through disinformation campaigns in favour of pro-Russian candidates, and efforts to fly Armenians living in Russia back home to vote against Pashinyan.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Moscow has adopted a more overt approach, imposing a series of trade restrictions affecting everything from flowers and fish to fruit and Armenian brandy.<\/p>\n
But these last-ditch measures have so far failed to put a dent in Armenia\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Buoyed up by strong economic growth following the influx of Russian businesses and capital after the invasion of Ukraine, Pashinyan has invested heavily in Armenia\u2019s regions, where his support remains strongest.<\/p>\n
Yet observers have also pointed to his increasingly personalised style of politics, and what critics describe as growing authoritarian tendencies in Armenia, a country that remains a rare democratic outlier in a region largely governed by strongmen.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the elections, Armenian authorities arrested opposition figures, including members of Karapetyan\u2019s party, on accusations ranging from vote-buying and financial crimes to calls to overthrow the government. Karapetyan himself was detained in June and charged with calling for the seizure of power, leading him to campaign from house arrest.<\/p>\n
Pashinyan has at times appeared erratic, engaging in ugly public disputes with refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, whom he accused of having \u201crun away\u201d from the region rather than staying to fight.<\/p>\n
The EU, meanwhile, has largely brushed aside criticism of Pashinyan, making little secret of its support for Armenia\u2019s shift away from Moscow. Brussels this week announced an initial \u20ac50m support package to help Armenia withstand Russian economic pressure.<\/p>\n
Karen Grigoryan, a doctor, who voted for Karapetyan on Sunday, said: \u201cPashinyan is not the man he was when he came to power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians that Yerevan and many western countries recognise as genocide, he added: \u201cWe can\u2019t just be friendly with Turkey and pretend the past is erased.\u201d<\/p>\n
Observers say many voters continue to back Pashinyan largely because the opposition remains deeply discredited and closely linked to Russia.<\/p>\n
Tatul Hakobyan, a popular Armenian commentator, saidL \u201cPeople are choosing the lesser of two evils. The alternatives to Pashinyan are much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armenians are going to the polls in an election that could cement the country\u2019s shift towards Europe and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-465330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}