Intelligence source names FSB operative in charge of effort to oust Armenia’s Pashynian

Russia’s Federal Security Service is directly involved in destabilizing Armenia with the aim of toppling the country’s government.

This was reported by the Guildhall news agency, citing a source in one of the European intelligence services, according to Ukrinform.

According to the source, several FSB units are involved in the effort, as well as a separate group that was deployed in Yerevan to coordinate the operation on the ground.

The team is headed by Roman Romachev, an FSB operative who is an expert on the so-called active measures (malign influence missions) and operates under the cover of a front company, the R-Techno private intelligence agency. Among other things, the group is tasked with organizing and coordinating anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Nikol Pashinyan’s government, providing information support for protests across social media platforms, as well as setting up provocations with the aim of radicalizing protesters.

As reported earlier, after Azerbaijan ran a blitz military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, a wave of protests and riots blasted across Armenia with demands for the Pashinyan’s government to resign.

In turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a statement that the son of former President Robert Kocharyan, Levon, who is believed to be a “close friend” of Vladimir Putin, stood behind the mass protests.

As reported by Armenia Today, the head of the Armenian government ordered members of his team to notify international partners that Russian intelligence agencies were plotting a coup in his country.

Also, after reports emerged of Russian intelligence setting up grounds for a coup, Nikol Pashinyan dismissed the chairman of the presidential guard, Sarkis Hovhannisyan, just four months into his appointment.