Kremlin disinformation wave before Armenian elections: FSB and presidential administration behind fake news
Before Armenia's parliamentary elections, the country faced an unprecedented Kremlin disinformation campaign, orchestrated by entities linked to Russia's security services and presidential administration.
Investigative media outlet The Insider has uncovered that Armenia was subjected to an unprecedented wave of Kremlin disinformation ahead of its parliamentary elections. The investigation revealed that the propaganda newspaper "Wyoming Star" is backed by Alexander Ionov, who has ties to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Responsibility for coordinating fake news online partly lies with Andrey Perla, a political technologist from the "Social Design Agency" (ASP), which is subordinate to the Russian presidential administration. Perla has previously been caught running disinformation campaigns in Europe, the United States, and even Latin America.
As an example, the outlet cites the portal "erevan.one," a Moscow-registered media outlet officially targeting Armenians living in Russia. A month before the elections, it published an article where astrologers warned of a highly unstable period from mid-June to mid-July 2026, which could trigger sudden scandals and mass unrest that would undermine all achievements of Prime Minister Pashinyan.
Four months before this publication, ASP’s management sent a report to the Kremlin's property management department announcing the launch of the "Yerevan First" project – a licensed news website with a planned monthly output of 200 long articles, 200 news items, 500 illustrations, and 10 videos, along with social media management.
After Yevgeny Prigozhin's death and the liquidation of his "troll farm," ASP became the Kremlin's main producer of fake news, according to the justification for U.S. sanctions. The agency was founded by Ilya Gambashidze and operates directly on behalf of the Kremlin.
