Russian oligarch and leader of the Strong Armenia bloc Samvel Karapetyan, has said he intends to become Armenia’s prime minister.
“I will definitely be the next prime minister, and you will applaud me,” he noted, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.
Karapetyan accused current Head of Government Nikol Pashinyan of stealing the votes again to stay in the chair longer.
“Opposition leaders will get out of prison, and those who should be in prison will go to prison,” Karapetyan added.
According to him, the idea of a “Real Armenia” boils down to having no homeland.
“We will do everything to prevent him from pursuing this ideology,” Karapetyan vowed, assuring that everything necessary would be done and that he would become the next prime minister.
Karapetyan was arrested in June 2025 after publicly criticising the Pashinyan government’s confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church and vowing to intervene “in our own way.” He was subsequently charged with calling for the seizure of power, an accusation he has denied as politically motivated.
After months in pretrial detention, Karapetyan was placed under house arrest and remained a prominent opposition figure, with his Strong Armenia alliance finishing second in the June 2026 parliamentary elections.
By Bakhtiyar Abbasov
