Armenia uncovers alleged coup plot with Russian traces.

Yerevan on Sept.

18 accused five Armenian citizens and two former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh of undergoing military training in Russia in order to stage an armed coup in Armenia. Three suspects have been arrested, while four are still at large, the Armenian Investigative Committee said. The identity of the suspects was not revealed.

While the committee did not implicate Russian authorities in the alleged plot, the news comes amid already strained Moscow-Yerevan ties. The suspects were offered a three-month military training on Russian territory for a monthly payment of 220,000 rubles (£2,400). The plans were carried out in cooperation "with other persons whose identity is yet to be determined," according to the statement.

The alleged plotters were to acquaint themselves with "new heavy weapons and learn the skills of their use" as part of their training, the committee said. The suspects then recruited other persons - fellow Armenians and Nagorno-Karabakh former residents - to join the alleged plot and also undergo training in Russia, according to the statement. This was meant to prepare the recruits to "return to Armenia and remove the current government," the committee added.

Some of the recruits allegedly refused to participate in the training and returned to Armenia, the committee said, adding that an intervention of Armenian law enforcement agencies thwarted the plot. The committee did not specify any political or other affiliations of the alleged plotters, saying that the investigation is ongoing. The authorities are now seeking to identify the remaining accomplices.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashiynan's government previously accused the country's military of plotting a coup in 2021, months after the unsuccessful war with Azerbaijan in 2020. The prime minister has taken an increasingly pro-Western foreign policy direction as the ties with Moscow, the country's traditional ally, soured when Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh did not prevent last year's Azerbaijani offensive. Over 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh in a mass exodus after Azerbaijan seized the region in a lightning military offensive in September 2023.

The war sparked mass protests against Pashiynan. Yerevan has been backing the unrecognized republic since its conception in the early 1990s, despite Nagorno-Karabakh being internationally recognized as Azerbaijani sovereign territory.

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