18:49, 1 July 2025

Armenian Parliament Speaker Calls for Ban on Russian TV Broadcasts

Russian state TV channels interfere in the internal political processes in Armenia, therefore it is necessary to "seriously discuss" stopping their broadcasting in the country, said Alen Simonyan.

The speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia made a statement about the activities of Russian TV channels and individual presenters at a briefing today. Alen Simonyan pointed out, in particular, the coverage of the arrest of businessman Samvel Karapetyan by Russian TV channels.

On June 17, security forces in Yerevan searched the house of businessman, owner of "Tashir Group" Samvel Karapetyan, who had previously expressed support for the Armenian Apostolic Church. Karapetyan was accused of calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order and was arrested for two months. Russia has stated its readiness to provide assistance to Karapetyan as a Russian citizen. The "Caucasian Knot" report "The Main Thing About Political Arrests in Armenia in June 2025" tells about the Karapetyan case and other recent arrests in Armenia.

"A number of programs have long been closed in Armenia, but if state TV channels allow themselves to interfere in the internal affairs of Armenia, then we must also act in the same way and close their entry into the apartments of our public," the "Novosti Armenia" news agency quotes him as saying.

Simonyan separately commented on the statements of some Russian TV presenters that Karapetyan's arrest allegedly harms Armenian-Russian relations. He suggested that the authors of such statements on Russian TV, who call themselves "friends" of Karapetyan, received money "in an envelope" from the businessman.

Speaking about the fact that similar statements were made by Russian parliamentarians, Simonyan said: “Perhaps they watched the programs of their degenerate hosts and got the impression that this really hits Armenian-Russian relations. The speeches of their degenerate hosts really harm Armenian-Russian relations” (quote from the publication by InfoPort.am, translated by “Caucasian Knot”).

The Prime Minister of the country warned about the possibility of shutting down Russian TV channels in Armenia more than a year ago, on May 7, 2024. “We expect these channels to respect the citizens and the state order of Armenia as a whole. I don’t think we want something impossible,” Sputnik-Armenia quoted him as saying.

As the Caucasian Knot wrote, in 2019, the head of the National Commission on Television and Radio of Armenia Tigran Hakobyan proposed to remove foreign TV channels from the package of state TV channels and classify them as private digital channels. The new media law, which came into force in 2020, obliged Russian TV channels to enter into special agreements for broadcasting in Armenia. Analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" at the time indicated that when concluding contracts it is necessary to exclude from broadcasting propaganda programs.

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/412719