U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis have appealed to Meta and Alphabet, urging them “to allocate sufficient resources to counter Russian disinformation ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 7.”
According to independent experts, “Russia is adapting its tactics used in Moldova, including leveraging Meta and Alphabet platforms, to influence the outcome of Armenia’s democratic processes, the bipartisan senators wrote in their letters,” as reported by RFE/RL.
“Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stated that ‘people from Russia’ are being encouraged to support certain political parties. A respected Armenian civil society organization, the Union of Informed Citizens, has identified around one hundred pages on Meta platforms engaged in spreading manipulative content related to the upcoming elections. The organization has also reported coordinated inauthentic behavior allegedly directed by a Russian-Armenian oligarch,” the authors wrote in a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg.
They added that the individual in question, whose identity has not been disclosed, was described in a report submitted to Congress during the first Trump administration as a “significant foreign political figure [or] oligarch in the Russian Federation with close ties to the Russian regime.”
“We hope you will again undertake and apply efforts similar to those used to support Moldova in defending its democracy from external interference, but now in coordination with relevant Armenian institutions,” the senators noted, reiterating their call for sufficient resources to strengthen efforts against disinformation ahead of Armenia’s elections.
Shaheen and Tillis emphasized that the upcoming elections are of critical importance for the country’s future, as they could “determine the outcome of regional peace initiatives, as well as communication projects, including TRIPP, a key component of peace negotiations.”
“No foreign power should be allowed to influence Armenia’s sovereign decisions,” the senators stressed in their letters.
Yerevan has requested support from the European Union to counter hybrid threats observed ahead of the 2026 parliamentary elections. The EU will allocate €15 million to Armenia to strengthen peace and resilience, as well as to support efforts addressing challenges in the information space.
