BBC Armenian journalist made factual errors and omissions

Grigor Atanesyan, an Armenian journalist for the BBC Russian Service, gave an interview to the BBC itself and made a number of factual errors and omissions thus distortin the essence of the events taking place in Armenia.

Based on the analysis of the statements made by the journalist during the podcast entitled “Pashinyan vs. the Armenian Church: What’s Going On,” the Fact Investigation Platform presents counterarguments below.

By the way, Grigor Atanesyan has been a journalist for the BBC Russian service for many years, living outside of Armenia, but covering political developments in Armenia. At the beginning of the podcast, the journalist presents the conflict between the Armenian government and the church, and afterwards touches upon the movement “For the Salvation of Tavush” led by the former head of the Tavush Diocese, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, which began in April 2024.

“It was a populist movement, because it was led not by a politician, but by a church figure, and the church, I mean its supreme head, distanced himself, did not directly support that movement,” Atanesyan noted.

This claim by the journalist is manipulative, because the Armenian Apostolic Church and especially representatives of its various dioceses, as well as numerous clergymen, supported that movement, participated in the marches from time to time, and the Catholicos of All Armenians blessed the movement led by Galstanyan. “His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch has blessed this movement,” Bagrat Galstanyan mentioned in his briefing on May 8, 2024.

Earlier, in 2020, the Catholicos had “fatherly urged” Pashinyan to resign, and he insisted on the same in 2021. In 2022, clergy also participated in the opposition’s political actions demanding Pashinyan’s resignation. All this indicates that the church had not completely distanced itself, while Atanesyan presents the situation as if the Armenian Apostolic Church had remained neutral or distant from political developments, which is factually incorrect.

Reflecting on to the events related to Samvel Karapetyan, Atanesyan draw some parallels between him and Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party considering the only difference to be the non-interference in the political life of Armenia by Karapetyan. He also noted that Karapetyan has made and continues to make his wealth in Russia, has been engaged in charity work in Armenia, has supported the church, and is the owner of the Electric Networks of Armenia. “He had a monopoly on electric networks, but this had not raised any questions so far,” Atanesyan noted. However, the journalist failed to mention the complaints about the ENA and periodic outages that had become a topic of discussion long time ago. Furthermore, there is no mention of the periodic fining of ENA by the Public Services Regulatory Commission for contractual violations and inconvenience caused to customers (respective violations and fines by years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Thus, Grigor Atanesyan distorted reality leading the listener of the podcast to form an incomplete picture of the problem related to the ENA.

What did the journalist fail to mention about Samvel Karapetyan?

The BBC journalist, speaking about Samvel Karapetyan in his interview, failed to mention several key circumstances.

Samvel Karapetyan, who is now accused of making public calls to seize power, is a Russian billionaire, his company “Tashir Group” (which includes more than 200 enterprises) is registered in Russia. In 2011, he first appeared on the Forbes list of the richest people. As of early 2025, his fortune was estimated at $ 3.2 billion, and as of this April he ranked the 44th in the list of the richest people. Karapetyan has close ties to the Kremlin, and his detention in Armenia was painfully received by the Russian government and Kremlin-aligned propagandists in Moscow.

It should also be noted that Samvel Karapetyan, as a Russian tycoon, is not under sanctions imposed by any third country. However, his plane was sanctioned by the USA in the fall of 2022 amid the Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition, back in 2024, a court in France froze the ownership of a luxurious mansion called Irina Maria worth EUR 120 million which officially belongs to Samvel Karapetyan. However, the French Prosecutor’s Office revealed that its beneficial owner is a subsidiary of the Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom.

The US Treasury Department published the Kremlin Report back in 2018, in which, as a person in close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Samvel Karapetyan was included in a list of more than 200 people. Nonetheless, this was not a sanction, but a list of influential people close to Putin who could later be sanctioned. That is to say, Karapetyan is listed as a sanctions-relevant person.

Hasmik Hambardzumyan