He worked as an assistant to Member of the State Duma Igor Zotov, was a member of the Expert Council of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots (the first deputy head of the Committee is the notorious Konstantin Zatulin, one of the most famous Armenian lobbyists in Russia) and was among the cronies of Inal Ardzinba, former advisor of the Russian President’s Department for CIS Affairs (the department was then overseen by Vladislav Surkov).
Ukrainian CyberJunta hackingt group hacked Mirzakhanyan’s correspondence with Ardzinba. It turned out that it was through Mirzakhanyan that the Kremlin paid for the services of European politicians who were willing to advocate recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and to demand the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia. After 2014, when Russia declared the Ukrainian peninsula part of its territory, the Kremlin used Mirzakhanyan and his team to make payments to politicians, mostly from the far right, to support the Russian annexation.
Some European politicians received several thousand euros from Mirzakhanyan for their trips to the economic forum in the occupied Yalta, pompously called “international”, in addition to payment of all travel and accommodation expenses. For example, German MEP from Alternative for Germany Marcus Pretzell received EUR 5,000 from Mirzakhanyan and his masters, his Czech colleague, ultraleft politician Jaromír Kohlíček also received EUR 5,000; services of the members of the National Council of Austria from the extreme right Freedom Party Axel Kasseger and Barbara Rosenkrantz were priced at EUR 4,000, Stefano Valdegamberi, member of the Veneto Regional Council received EUR 3,000. Apparently, Mirzakhanyan also paid for the regional parliaments of three Italian regions—Veneto, Liguria, and Lombardy—to adopt resolutions supporting the annexation of Crimea and calling for the lifting of sanctions against Russia: in his correspondence with Ardzinba, Mirzakhanyan called this decision “a bomb”. He also paid for the publication of pertinent “commissioned” pieces.
Obviously, Mirzakhanyan did not pay European politicians out of his own pocket. However, the fact that he was chosen for this sensitive role is hardly coincidental. Techniques of bribing politicians, journalists and MP so that they would foam at the mouth demanding the recognition of the “Armenian genocide”, the “unblocking of the Lachin corridor”, the “sanctions against Azerbaijan in the gas sector” have long been perfected by the Armenians. And it has long been an open secret that the Armenian lobby has become so wealthy and influential thanks to the Kremlin’s money pumped into it: the defecting KGB general Oleg Kalugin was blunt about it.
It is also telling that even before OCCRP, Mirzakhanyan’s leaked correspondence was published by the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets. The investigation by the Ukrainian colleagues shows that Mirzakhanyan “worked” in that country as well. It turns out that Mr. Mirzakhanyan was also actively involved in attempts to stir up separatism among ethnic Hungarians and Subcrpathian Rusyns in Zakarpattia. Again, this can hardly be dismissed as a coincidence: Armenians have a wealth of experience in provoking separatist conflicts. As early as February 2014, Mirzakhanyan makes contact with Aram Davydovich Petrosyan, one of the leaders of the Anti-Maidan, a semi-criminal organization that sought to disrupt the Maidan protests through kidnappings, beatings and even murders. Petrosyan also headed the International Party of Ukraine, which was very convenient for implementing separatist scenarios.
There is no direct evidence that Mirzakhanyan’s enthusiastic involvement in fomenting separatism in Zakarpattia and the arrival of Anushavan Danelyan (former deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament, who managed to flee Crimea for fear of being exposed as a corrupt official, worked in Yerevan as director of a cable factory and then served as “Prime Minister of Karabakh”) in Crimea just before the Russian annexation are links of the same chain. But this can hardly be considered a coincidence either. There is a very distinct “Armenian accent” in the European political corruption benefitting the Kremlin.
Armenia seems to play the role of an “outpost” here as well, putting the Armenian diaspora and its corrupt channels at the Kremlin’s disposal. And if Europe has started an anti-corruption cleanup of its institutions, one would like to hope that it will also get to the network of the “Armenian lobby”. Without that, no anti-corruption efforts will have desired effect.
