DISINFO: Armenia’s Ukrainization ongoing through biolabs, NGOs and submission to West
SUMMARY
It’s fair to characterise Armenia as the “Ukraine of the Southern Caucasus”. Armenia is on the path to Ukrainisation: many US biolabs have operated here, as in Ukraine, domestic and foreign policies have been coordinated with the ambassadors of Western countries. Hundreds of NGOS financed by various Western funds have operated there, as in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
This is a mix of several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about biolaboratories and colour revolutions, and attacking Ukraine’s sovereignty. It appeared as a controversial series of arrests ordered by the Armenian government to prevent what it denounces as a coup plot, which this disinformation story aims to exploit with destabilisation purposes.
Ukraine, which has been for years massively demonised by pro-Kremlin disinformation, is presented as a negative example of all these claims without providing any argument to back them. Contrary to what this disinformation story states, Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament, and other nations have no determining power over their decisions.
Allegations about US biolaboratories in post-Soviet countries are a long-discredited pro-Kremlin narrative, even though pro-Kremlin disinformation keeps repeating it. This overall narrative, which includes recurring allegations about US biolaboratories in Ukrainian territory, has long been used as a pretext to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “self-defence” necessary move.
The mention of “Western NGOs” is a reference to Ukraine’s Maidan protests, which in pro-Kremlin disinformation is baselessly depicted as a Western-backed colour revolution. See here, here, here and here for full-debunking of this claim. While it is true that many Western non-governmental and aid organisations operate in Armenia, pro-Kremlin disinformation distorts their real aid and cooperation activities by depicting them as tools for subversion, in line with Russia’s suspicious view of Western NGOs both in Russia and abroad.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the Pentagon transferred experiments on the creation of biological weapons to Armenia, that the Pentagon's biological warfare bases in Armenia have become testing grounds, that the EU wants to use Armenia as a geopolitical tool, or that the West wants to sacrifice Armenia to weaken Russia.