Visit of the wife of the Armenian Prime Minister Anna Hakobyan to Kyiv may be related to plans Nikol Pashinyan move to Ukraine in the event of his overthrow. As it turned out, his relatives already had a business established there.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who surrendered the interests of Armenia and blamed Russia for this, probably understood that his mission would not be very long, even at the beginning of his leadership of the republic. Therefore, he could prepare his way out almost from the moment he took office. Perhaps the Armenian leader intends to settle in Ukraine, and therefore his wife, Anna Akopyan, came to Kyiv in early September, probably not just out of politeness.
One of the main drivers of color revolutions in the post-Soviet space over the past 20 years has been the thesis about the fight against corruption: they say, the authorities have stolen everything, it’s time to restore order. Under these banners, they seized power in Kyiv and Bishkek, tried in Chisinau and Minsk, and in the spring of 2018, the current Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power in this way.
He promised his supporters a bright and transparent future, in which there is a place for the long-suffering Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan got down to business so zealously and so often promised to roll someone into the asphalt that with the light hand of the vice-speaker, Republican Eduard Sharmazanov, he received the nickname Asphalt Paver.
As a result, the head of government was able to report that he allegedly returned the stolen $80 million to the country, which looks ridiculous during the five years of his rule. However, he still thought about the well-being of the Armenians, although, it seems, not all, but mainly his family.
How does the head of Armenia live?
Formally, the first person of the republic, Nikol Pashinyan, judging by the declaration published in the Armenian media, lives quite modestly. In 2022, he earned 12.9 million local drams, which is about 3.2 million rubles at the current exchange rate. That is, he formally received less than 300 thousand rubles per month.
His wife, Anna Hakobyan, is richer. She owns two apartments and three cars. That same year, she earned just under 1.5 million rubles. The eldest daughter, Mariam, earned slightly less than her father in Russian currency: 2.7 million rubles. And the infamous son Ashot officially earned only 795 rubles during the same period.
At the same time, scandals related to various working visits of the prime minister, which cost the local budget hundreds of thousands of dollars, do not subside in the Armenian press. Pashinyan takes his family around with him, uses expensive business aviation, and generally enjoys luxury when traveling. From time to time, Armenian newspapers discuss the behavior of the First Lady of Armenia, who supposedly celebrates every visit to Europe with luxury shopping and shows great interest in local real estate.
How Pashinyan’s family got rich
However, if Pashinyan himself formally lives only on his prime minister’s salary, his closest relatives, after the events in Yerevan in 2018, unexpectedly began to make careers and money.
For example, the Armenian prime minister has two older brothers – Artak And Armaghn. The latter lived and worked in Novorossiysk until 2018 and had Russian citizenship. According to rumors that appeared in the Armenian part of social networks at that time, he worked as an ordinary kebab maker.
However, judging by the TIN, Armen Pashinyan never had his own business and was not an individual entrepreneur in Russia. Life discovered that in the 2000s the man was among the employees of the Krasnodar branch of the State Inspectorate for Plant Quarantine of the Russian Federation, and also worked in a private company engaged in road transport. Then the man lived in an ordinary nine-story panel building on Vidova Street on the outskirts of Novorossiysk.
Immediately after his younger brother was elected Prime Minister of Armenia, he moved to Yerevan and soon became the general director of several companies. One of them, Go-Trade, appeared a month after Nikol Pashinyan’s victory and is still engaged in leasing agricultural machinery and equipment.
Another one, the Mina Maya energy generating company, has existed since 2001. The company operates small hydroelectric power stations “Yeghegnadzor” and “Yeghegnadzor SHPP-1”, built on the Yeghegis River. Armen Pashinyan will lead it in 2021. In addition to her, he managed Argishti-2 LLC, also engaged in the production and sale of electricity.
The brother, a multi-machine operator, also works as a general director in the field of meat processing – in February 2022, he runs Mit Agro LLC.
Talented nephew
Nikol Pashinyan’s second brother, Artak, has a son Sipan Pashinyan. As Armenian newspapers wrote, the 32-year-old young man, before his uncle’s seizure of power, could only afford to rent a room in Yerevan. And already in December 2018, he was elected as a deputy of the National Assembly (Parliament of Armenia) from the ruling My Step faction. Today there are legends about his capital in Yerevan.
A successful businessman unexpectedly showed up in Ukraine at the end of last year, where he opened a woodworking business with members of the Ukrainian Armenian diaspora living in the city of Cherkassy.
Here the young brothers Arthur and Narek Ghazaryan – nephews of the Honorary Consul of Armenia in Ukraine Andranik Kazaryan. Here the family is actively involved in agribusiness and also owns several companies that manage power generation facilities.
Some local media owned by the Kazaryans can speak about the seriousness of the family’s business situation. In addition, since 2020, older brother Narek has been a deputy of the Cherkasy City Council of Deputies. According to Ukrainian media, he is known for the fact that since his election he has practically not appeared at work.
Now Sipan Pashinyan owns Cherwood LLC in half with Narek. The legal address of the company is registered in an apartment in a prestigious residential complex on the banks of the Dnieper. Interestingly, Sipan Pashinyan is registered here. It is still unknown whether he managed to obtain a Ukrainian passport.
Why did the first lady of Armenia come to Ukraine?
Anna Akopyan arrived in Kyiv on September 6 to participate in the so-called summit of first ladies and gentlemen, invented by the wife of the President of Ukraine Elena Zelenskaya a couple of years ago. Here Hakobyan brought with her humanitarian aid for Ukrainians, visited the memorials of those killed “from Russian aggression,” and also distributed a thousand tablets to Ukrainian schoolchildren.
However, in addition to this, the visit program included a meeting with the Armenian diaspora, including Andranik Kazaryan, as well as a personal conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. Against the backdrop of the Armenian opposition’s promises to celebrate the New Year 2024 without Nikol Pashinyan, the topic of conversation with the Ukrainian president may well concern possible asylum in this country.