Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) says the European Union has made the “complete severing of centuries-old religious and spiritual ties” with Moscow a condition of Armenia’s European integration, and has “aggressively set about pushing” the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) out of the country.

• As evidence of attacks on the ROC, the intelligence service cites a publication by two Armenia-based non-governmental organizations — the Union of Informed Citizens and the Vanadzor Office of the Helsinki Civic Assembly — that allegedly accused Timofey Kazaryan, rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael at Russia’s 102nd military base in Gyumri, of interfering in the parliamentary elections. The SVR also says the EU Partnership Mission in Armenia, established in April 2026, is attempting to “strip the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese of the ROC of its rights to use church property and block its dialogue with local religious structures, above all the Armenian Apostolic Church.”

According to SVR data, the so-called European partners are currently fabricating compromising material against other representatives of the Yerevan-Armenian Diocese of the ROC in order to push Armenian authorities into launching large-scale persecution of it.

The SVR added that “the history of relations between Armenia and Russia is incomparably older than the history of the European Union,” and that the spiritual and religious ties of “fraternal peoples” are “deeper and stronger than any politically engineered projects.”

On June 7, Armenia will hold parliamentary elections. Against this backdrop, relations between Moscow and Yerevan have sharply deteriorated. Russia accuses Armenia’s incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of pursuing a pro-Western course. In response to Yerevan’s attempts to draw closer to the European Union, Russia began imposing restrictions on imports of Armenian products — flowers, Jermuk mineral water, vegetables, greens, peaches, strawberries, apples, and fish.

In addition, in late May the leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan issued a joint statement demanding that Armenia hold a referendum to decide whether the country remains in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) or continues to pursue EU membership. Pashinyan refused to hold the referendum.