By Stepan Stepanian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a covert meeting with David Cohen, the deputy director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, in Yerevan on Tuesday.
Pashinyan’s press office issued a brief and deliberately vague statement about the encounter, citing discussions on U.S.-Armenian relations and unspecified “international agenda” topics. The lack of detail is conspicuous, and no photographs were released, deviating from their usual practice of showcasing Pashinyan’s meetings with foreign officials.
This is not an isolated incident. CIA Director William Burns made an unannounced visit to Armenia in July 2022, engaging in undisclosed discussions with Pashinyan and Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council. Grigoryan later visited the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, but again, the content of their discussions was shrouded in secrecy.
Similarly, in December 2022, Grigoryan met with Richard Moore, head of Britain’s MI6, in London. Shortly after, Moore traveled to Yerevan for further talks with Pashinyan, and they met again in February at an international security conference in Munich. The opaque nature of these meetings raises questions about the true nature of their agendas.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s relationship with Russia, a historical ally, has been deteriorating. Pashinyan’s administration accuses Moscow of failing to uphold its security commitments, prompting Armenia to pivot towards the West under the guise of “diversifying” its foreign policy.
The situation worsened when Azerbaijan regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh last September, intensifying the strain between Armenia and Russia. Moscow has since blamed Pashinyan for the deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations, suggesting that Pashinyan’s moves are undermining a longstanding alliance in favor of dubious Western promises.
This pattern of clandestine engagements with Western intelligence agencies and the subsequent strain with Russia points to a significant shift in Armenia’s geopolitical stance, one that is fraught with risks and uncertainties for its future.
