Armenia votes in pivotal election as Pashinyan defies Russia

Armenia held parliamentary elections on Sunday as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sought re-election on a platform of European integration and peace with Azerbaijan, facing mounting pressure from Russia, which has banned Armenian imports and conducted a propaganda campaign against him. Pashinyan's Civil Contract party led polls with 32-36% support, while his main rival, billionaire Samvel Karapetyan of the Strong Armenia party, trails behind despite being under house arrest on coup charges that he rejects as politically motivated. Moscow has accused Pashinyan of threatening Armenian democracy and warned that pursuing EU integration could trigger the same conflict that led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Kremlin ally Margarita Simonyan accusing the prime minister of hallucinating from psychedelic mushrooms. The elections represent a referendum on Armenia's geopolitical pivot away from Moscow, which has been its main trading partner and military ally but failed to help Yerevan during the 2023 seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, triggering a mass exodus of over 100,000 Armenians from the enclave. Pashinyan has frozen Armenia's participation in the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization while deepening ties with the European Union and United States, a shift that has earned him public endorsements from US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. However, his popularity has declined from 54% in 2021 to around 30%, with some Armenians angry over his peace concessions to Azerbaijan, though the opposition remains fragmented and unable to unite against him. The vote comes after years of upheaval since Pashinyan came to power in a 2018 popular revolution, the type of uprising that Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes in countries near his borders. Russia has deployed military forces in Armenia and still supplies discounted gas, but analysts say Moscow is too preoccupied with its war in Ukraine to act militarily and may face its third consecutive failure in attempting to influence a post-Soviet election. The peace agreement with Azerbaijan remains highly controversial domestically, with 44% of Armenians supporting it and 41% opposed, and it remains unclear whether Pashinyan's party can secure the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to pass constitutional amendments demanded by Baku as a condition for a final peace treaty.