Armenia braces for election as Russia piles pressure on pro-West government

Armenia votes on 7 June under mounting Russian economic pressure, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan seeks re-election on a promise of European integration.

The election has drawn significant international attention to the small South Caucasus nation of three million people, which has steadily grown closer to the West while still intertwined with Russia, its largest trading partner.

The rapprochement with the West is largely Pashinyan's doing.

Since coming to power in 2018, the prime minister has steered his country away from Moscow, passed a law to launch the process of joining the EU, and accelerated the peace process with neighbouring Azerbaijan via a US-brokered agreement. The latter has won him US President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Pashinyan also hosted a large summit of EU leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the capital, Yerevan, earlier this year.

Yet despite these successes, Pashinyan's domestic support has fallen from 54% in 2021 to around 30% today.

The main reason is Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave inside Azerbaijan that was home to 100,000 ethnic Armenians until Azerbaijan took it by force in 2023.

Pashinyan's critics have never forgiven him for making concessions in favour of peace with Azerbaijan, like refusing to campaign for the release of former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh who are in jail in the neighbouring country.