For several months, Armenia has been the target of a wide-ranging Russian disinformation campaign ahead of its parliamentary elections in early June. Researchers say the operation is among the most extensive in recent years. The Cube examines how and why false claims have been circulating,
Euronews reports.
A large-scale pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign is targeting Armenia ahead of its parliamentary elections on 7 June, researchers say.
In total, 343 fake videos were published by early May, prompting analysts to describe the operation as one of the most extensive in recent years — second only to the campaign observed during Moldova's 2025 election.
According to researchers, the campaign began in early March and was part of "Matryoshka" — a pro-Kremlin disinformation operation that has increasingly used artificial intelligence.
Among the fabricated videos, a central narrative claims that a victory for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whose campaign focuses on a pro-European direction, could trigger a war between Armenia and Russia.
The collective Antibot4Navalny, which studies bot networks, said it had identified more than a dozen fake videos featuring Pashinyan and French President Emmanuel Macron, which repeatedly promote the false claim that the two leaders struck a "secret deal": French backing in the election in exchange for Armenia launching a war against Russia after a victory.
On 11 May, one video falsely claimed that Pashinyan's press secretary had confirmed the presence of NATO instructors in Armenia, and that, following the parliamentary elections, he would "provoke a military conflict with Russia."
However, fabricated media reports are not the only tool used in this disinformation campaign. Researchers say bots are also spreading false claims on social media platforms such as X in an apparent effort to undermine Pashinyan.
No evidence supports these allegations. It is also worth noting that, although some of these posts garnered tens of thousands of views, researchers say the figures were artificially inflated.
