Warning: This is a rush transcript generated automatically and may contain errors.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hello, everyone. This is Groong’s Week in Review for August 30th, 2026. Hey, folks. Sorry that we were unable to get a Week in Review for last week, August 23.
Schedules were so complicated and conflicting that we eventually ended up delaying by one day, two days, three days, and then decided that, okay, we have to skip that. So here we are. It’s a couple of weeks, but got this show off the ground.
Hovik Manucharyan: Life wins in the end.
Asbed Bedrossian: What’s our first topic?
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, I don’t know if any leader in the world would envy Vladimir
Hovik Manucharyan: Zelensky today, except maybe Nikol Pashinyan, because he seems to really want to emulate. But let’s talk about the Ukraine war , where Ukraine is being really pummeled by Russia. And I know we’re talking about intensification every time. And, you know, Russia’s strategy seems to be more anaconda-like, where it’s slowly choking you.
But Russia has truly intensified attacks all across Ukraine in response to very pernicious and very dangerous attacks by Ukraine in Russia against Russia’s civilian infrastructure. But I think that we’re seeing now imagery of complete blackouts in Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian post offices destroyed, Ukrainian energy infrastructure being destroyed, And Putin has essentially said that he will now openly target energy and infrastructure targets. I think it’s a very tough issue because he initially was against that. Because I think in reality, Ukrainians and Russians are at least cousins.
Let me just not be insensitive because some people feel strongly about being Ukrainian and Russian. But those people are cousins. And Putin’s strategy of trying to win the favor of Ukrainians, I think, was a handicap in his efforts to execute this war. But I think we’re seeing that changed.
And, you know, I’m just, you know, there are now talks about what Ukrainians are going to be doing this winter because it’s going to be really cold. So that’s the situation. I mean, I don’t think there’s much to talk about in terms of, you know, we’re not military experts and we don’t want to, you know, give you a play by play of what happened anywhere. But that is a major news and major development.
You know, what are your thoughts on this aspect? What do you what do you think
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, I think that you have a soft spot for Ukraine. You have a bunch of relatives there. You have lived among them, and you know how close the Ukrainians and the Russians are. So I think you have a certain amount of passion for this. but I have repeatedly said that I don’t care a whole lot.
I don’t care about day-to-day tactics of this war. It’s been four and a half years that Russia has started this special military operation that was supposed to be, what, three weeks? And now this is a war that’s longer than the patriotic war, longer than the Second World War. And I’m really tired of it.
Either Russia is unable to finish the job or doesn’t want to finish the job. And, you know, if you ask me personally, that’s why I feel very detached from this. I don’t want to discuss it. For me, the end result is that Russia has been significantly weakened and reduced in other theaters, just like the South Caucasus and Armenia. and well, maybe it’s possible that for a large and powerful country of 150 million people, this retreat from the South Caucasus just seems like, you know, over hundreds of years, sometimes they come, sometimes they go like waves of an ocean.
But the loss of this ally has put Armenia on the deathbed. And that includes, you know, the real politic-based toleration of Pashinyan ’s bend over pro-Turkish government. So I’m sorry to be very passionate about this from a pro-Armenian perspective, but I just find it very, very difficult to forgive in many ways.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, well, I mean, I think Russians have a saying, you can’t be, we can’t be more Armenian than the Armenians themselves.
Asbed Bedrossian: I think Putin said that explicitly in Bishkek.
Hovik Manucharyan: And I think, and I think we’re saying right now,
Asbed Bedrossian: Today.
Hovik Manucharyan: we can’t be more Russian than the Russians themselves. So, yeah, for Russia, it’s like me yesterday, when there was a hole in my pocket, and I lost a couple of quarters. that’s I think what Armenia feels like to them
Asbed Bedrossian: Ha ha
Hovik Manucharyan: unfortunately in reality I think that larger states have a rhyme and reason in terms of what they do and I think For better or worse, this was Putin’s strategy. But regardless, I think it’s changing now. I think that the pain that Russians, ordinary Russians, are suffering, I think all of the Wildberries distribution centers have been targeted by now,
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: all or most. They’re now targeting Ozon, which is the second largest sort of Amazon of Russia. escalating to the point where I think that now Russia needs to climb up the escalation ladder. And I think that will be a complete energy blackout for Ukraine. And, you know, yes, Russia probably, we have to understand that Russia is fighting the entire West in all of this. does have ability.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, in 2022, did you know that this was going to be a Russia versus NATO war?
Hovik Manucharyan: I think I did. I think I did know that. I knew that in 2014. But I think Russia had strategies or thought it had strategies for preventing the escalation to the point where it got today.
But I think those strategies didn’t work. And now we have to find out what the other asymmetric escalation options are there. So far, at least if you look at the Russian economy, I mean, yes, geopolitically for Armenians and for the entire region, it has been I think. But for Russia, at least, it seems to be able to manage social cohesion.
Its economy is still growing. and yes there are there there is an undercurrent of discontent but I think it’s not anywhere near the point where Western media is presenting it uh and I think that
Asbed Bedrossian: So, let me just say, my question to you was rhetorical,
Hovik Manucharyan: Russia has yeah
Asbed Bedrossian: because I knew that you knew in 2022 and before that it was flat out going to be a Russia versus NATO proxy war, if not direct war. But I was going to ask as a follow-up, then how come the Kremlin didn’t know that? Of course, they knew what was going to happen, I’m sure of it. But, you know, things haven’t turned out exactly how they expected.
So, I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to continue. As long as they have China backing them, I don’t think that anyone can expect Russia to go bankrupt or go away. They’re powerful enough to continue.
Hovik Manucharyan: So let me ask you, do you think that this is a Russia versus NATO war or do you think this is a world
Asbed Bedrossian: Oh, 100%.
Hovik Manucharyan: war?
Asbed Bedrossian: 100%.
Hovik Manucharyan: No, do you think we are in a world war?
Asbed Bedrossian: Many analysts that we follow, that I follow, that you follow, have already said, basically, we are in the early days of World War III.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: I sure hope we’re not. I sure hope we’re not. But it really feels like there is an escalation pattern. It’s kind of scary.
And I hope that, you know, wiser leaders will prevail.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, is why I feel sometimes like, you know, criticizing Russian policy is like being a Monday morning quarterback. I think there are the intelligence services of these countries have a much higher vantage point of worldwide events.
And there may be rhyme and reason why things had to be taken this slowly. but it does mean that there are wild cards and one of those wild cards was Pashinyan who is completely for us it was a wild card because he after the 2020 war the Russians instituted peacekeeping force but Pashinyan found a way against that and that was the recognition that Artsakh is Azerbaijan all of a sudden and Russia I think that Russia could do something even then, but when you have the leader of Armenia doing that. So from adjacent theaters like that, I think Russia cannot have total control over what’s going on.
And I think that it would deny agency to Armenians but I think out of our own self-interest, we should have, you know, gotten rid of Pashinyan. We should not have had Pashinyan in the first place, but it is what it is. And I think that, you know, we discussed this with Arthur Martirosyan last week. I think that Russia will eventually come back to the Caucasus.
It is a Caucasian country, and I don’t think that a Russian view of Eurasianism or essentially the strategy that Putin is trying to present work if Caucasus and Central Asia are taken out of the game. And for that reason alone, I think that would be a matter of survival for Russia to fight for these regions. And of course, I’m not pinning my hope on Russia itself as an Armenian. But has been so easy to co-opt.
Armenian leadership has been so easy to co-opt by outside powers to their bidding. that is what I feel humiliated about and that is what I feel guilty about and
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, I hope that Russia doesn’t come back to the South Caucasus and find a country
Hovik Manucharyan: I want to say to our yeah
Asbed Bedrossian: named Western Azerbaijan and villages called Qyarqi and other BS like that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, that is a real threat. that’s why we’re talking about it.
But, you know, we were complaining that a lot of people are under this cloud of, you know, mirage presented by Western media that, hey, you know, things are going good for Armenia and so forth. you know there’s economic prosperity which is completely uh bullshit and it is all you know we’re being gaslighted to the end on this anyway we’ll talk more about that later but going back to Ukraine sympathize with the citizens of both Ukraine and Russia who have to suffer but I think an end to this war is now the most humane option but I think it geopolitically um and if that means that Russia would have to you know uh surrender to the West and to uh Ukraine is not an option and I think that the ground truth the boots on the ground indicate that it’s completely the opposite so um
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, so I think there were some visits last week to Moscow.
Asbed Bedrossian: They were trying to convince Moscow that it should find a diplomatic solution. What were they?
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Well, it’s been much talked about, so we don’t want to rehash it, but John Ratcliffe, CIA Director, visited unannounced Moscow in a C-17 aircraft, and Western media presented that he went to Putin to deliver a tough message that don’t you dare to attack NATO countries, we have intelligence that you’re going to attack NATO countries, and don’t you dare do that. meanwhile other which I believe you know which I have a tendency to believe more truthful reports are saying that the West is now requesting translation begging pleading with Putin to negotiate with Zelensky and specifically they want to have a trilateral summit between Trump, Zelensky and Putin and
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, so interestingly, Hovik, that offer, I think,
Hovik Manucharyan: of
Asbed Bedrossian: or that proposal came from the Vatican. It was Gallagher from the Vatican who apparently proposed
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: a trilateral thing. And, of course, it’s coordinated. Zelensky had agreed to having such a meeting later in September or something like that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican’s foreign minister, also made a surprise visit, and this was after a break of five years. So these are major developments, and I would ask those, okay, you have two major world leaders arriving to Russia impromptu, you know, which one is more true, you know, suffering and is on the verge of defeat or Russia has the upper hand. So it seems like the latter to me.
Asbed Bedrossian: So the Americans who visited, basically, they tried to sell Russia on the fact that it has made very little progress in the war over the last year, year and a half. And therefore, you know, it doesn’t look good for their economy. It doesn’t look good for their military, as if, you know, NATO intelligence has better information about their military than Putin does. and of course the Kremlin just basically rejected it. I think their press releases basically said, go away.
They were a little more accepting of the Vatican thing saying that we will consider, but I think that they’ve rejected,
Hovik Manucharyan: in the face. Peskov said that the only situation in which Russia would agree to meet was to sign a final agreement. And in Russian eyes, that means terms of surrender of Zelensky in Ukraine.
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: So to me, this was a very response by the Kremlin and effectively
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: a slap in the face of the Western leaders who visited.
Hovik Manucharyan: know what uh in Armenia there is this uh youtube fake channel called Perfect TV
Asbed Bedrossian: Oh yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: uh they they said they spew out fake news about you know how Erdogan capitulated to and is begging not to attack i wonder like what the next
Asbed Bedrossian: Ha ha
Hovik Manucharyan: episode on perfect tv will be like Like, you know, Ratcliffe went to Moscow and strongly urged Putin to meet with Pashinyan. And now Putin agreed and now they’re meeting. So I believe something like that.
Asbed Bedrossian: We probably won’t have to wait very long because the meeting is today as far as I know, September 1st.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes, yes. We’ll talk more about that later.
Asbed Bedrossian: We are, yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: But there are actually people, I don’t know where I heard it, but there are actually people who are tying the Ratcliffe visit to… to Moscow with Putin’s meeting with Pashinyan and I just I just find it very funny anyway
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m sorry.
Hovik Manucharyan: Thank you.
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, let’s do a very quick wrap on the Iran war ,
Asbed Bedrossian: because over the last 48 hours or so, we’ve seen an escalation both from the United States and also Iran. They’ve been striking each other. I think that the latest escalation began just yesterday. Today, well, actually, we’re now past midnight, so it’s September 1.
I was going to say yesterday, but August 30th, I think the United States started airstrikes against Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. And that triggered immediate response on the part of Iran on a bunch of U.S. bases in Jordan. interesting thing for me was that Iran’s response was almost like knee-jerk reaction.
Hovik Manucharyan: It was the fastest response.
Asbed Bedrossian: They had pre-decided that as soon as something like this happens, you strike back. It wasn’t like it goes back to command central and they decide how should we respond to something like this. It’s like instant.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, it took Iran two hours, and that is the fastest response time so far,
Asbed Bedrossian: You know, Trump posted on social media, I guess his social media is Truth Social, and basically said that Kharg Island was being blown to smithereens.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: I think we’re kind of used to seeing things like that. Iran immediately called it a laughable claim.
Hovik Manucharyan: It’s laughable, but it’s also regrettable, right? We have a leader of the world, casually threatening nuclear war, casually threatening nuking countries, and a so-called peace president who has started more than one war himself and has fanned the flames of other wars. So it’s, we live in a twilight zone, I would say, but I think…
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, briefly, why do we have this escalation right now? I mean, there’s barely two months to elections, both in the United States and Israel, like literally just barely two months.
Hovik Manucharyan: None of the analysts I was able to follow and read, all of them are dumbfounded, why this escalation right now. So, I’m sorry, I can’t say why, and…
Asbed Bedrossian: Is it like a distraction? Because, you know, both Netanyahu and Trump, who have serious domestic problems, can use this as a distraction, and they can try to rally their voting base around the flag, stuff like that. But not a whole lot of good that can come from these strikes.
Hovik Manucharyan: If it was so easy to use wars for distraction, I mean, it’s been done, but I think when you have a serious opponent like Iran, I don’t think that’s, you know, you can play around with Iran. So we saw the response and Trump threatened to retaliate for Iran’s retaliation. And then now we’re going to see Iran’s retaliation to the U.S.
Asbed Bedrossian: Right.
Hovik Manucharyan: retaliation for Iran’s retaliation. so things have a tendency to escalate I’m just a lay person but I can see that and I
Asbed Bedrossian: And Iran, about a week ago,
Hovik Manucharyan: think that
Asbed Bedrossian: put out some kind of a note from their defense department saying that they had completely replenished their stocks.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: And they were ready for the next phase, if the next phase was going to start. So they obviously knew something was coming, and they want to indicate that they’re ready. And obviously, they are kind of ready.
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, it’s unfortunate, but don’t see how this issue will be resolved at this point, and hopefully there are more smarter people than me who see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t. go to Armenia aspect so
Asbed Bedrossian: Let’s do that.
Hovik Manucharyan: last week two Artsakh presidents had their birthday, Bako Sahakyan, August 30, and Robert Kocharyan August 31 former presidents of Artsakh that were elected by the people of Artsakh are now under imprisonment or detention Kocharyan is jailed by Aliyev ’s puppet while the remaining three presidents are jailed by the dictator of Baku and being held there. This is what I’m talking about when people say, this is now the era of peace. It’s a little surreal to talk about this, but all I can say is that we have prisoners and hostages right now. the Armenian people, the Armenian nation has prisoners and hostages and we should not forget about that.
You should think about that every single minute and think about what you’re doing to inform people of the situation, to inform your own actions and your own behavior regarding the leadership in Armenia. But that is what goes through my head every time. What are your thoughts about this situation, Asbed?
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, I was hoping you would not be asking, because I have nothing good to say. We’ve always said that Pashinyan and Aliyev are basically 100% on the same page about the jailing of all these Artsakh leaders. And, you know, it’s been a coordinated cooperation between the two of them. The Artsakh leadership, you know, they’re strong, nationalistic, patriotic people who were forged in the war, right?
They came to Armenia, and they had purpose. to Pashinyan, who is everything that they are not. And one could even see how Aliyev could use the release of these leaders suddenly as leverage over Pashinyan, because if they come to Yerevan, these guys could basically take out Pashinyan’s government. They’re very popular. They are aligned with the people.
I don’t think Pashinyan’s government could stay in place for a month if these jailed leaders, like Ruben Vardanyan, like Bako Sahakyan, if these guys came back, the Pashinyan government would have a lot of problems. So think that they have made their pact, Pashinyan and Aliyev, and some of them are jailed in Yerevan and some of them are jailed in Baku. That’s the deal.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, I don’t want to, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating, but, you know, we have true living heroes with us today. Unfortunately, they’re in jail, and many of them, I would say, are better than many other heroes we’ve had in our history books.
I mean, you look at Bako Sahakyan, I mean, the man has dedicated his entire life to freeing his people from oppression. and in the end he’s now suffering for it i i don’t know what to say you compare like an image take a picture of Bako Sahakyan and then take a picture of I’m not even saying Pashinyan take a picture of Suren Papikyan and try to compare this yes he served in the army and then he stabbed his commanding And he’s probably the only one on the Pashinyan team or one of the few who served in the armed forces. And we are, as a nation, supposed to follow that.
I’m not even saying that, of course, they’re directly controlled by the enemy, not that they’re incompetent. They’re directly under Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s control. you know I think many people in Armenia and around the world wish for a quick end to the torment of all of our political prisoners and hostages whether in Baku or Yerevan I can I pray for their health and for their well-being and for their quick return and I think many Armenians would So we…
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, you are not alone.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah. Yes.
Asbed Bedrossian: Putin also congratulated Kocharyan on his birthday two days ago, or actually yesterday, August 31st. And, of course, Putin, as you know, has not even congratulated Pashinyan on his so-called re-election. What do you think? What’s the message that he is sending by saying this?
I mean the day before he’s going to meet with Pashinyan in Bishkek and we’ll talk about that in just a moment he congratulates and he also says that there were friendly and allied ties developed under Kocharyan between the peoples of Russia and Armenia what’s the message here?
Hovik Manucharyan: know, I don’t want to bring Putin into this. I think that we as Armenians have our own reasons for our own heroes wanting them to come back.
But yes, I think Putin’s message is that, and of course we heard that from his speaker as well, Peskov, who said basically that the demand stands that Armenia holds a referendum on leaving the Eurasian Economic Union and joining the EU. so Russia is politically Russia is forcing um Armenia’s hand and it would I mean it remains to be seen what additional levers Russia can use to force Armenia to make this move maybe uh maybe Putin will cut off the gas uh maybe Putin will cut off the nuclear fuel they have options and And And I hope they don’t do that because that hurts the Armenian people.
And that just sort of, you know, that argument that you mentioned, it translates this to the geopolitical sphere. And many countries can use our misfortune that we have right now to their advantage. And, of course, we have to we have to ourselves orient ourselves in this world. But probably prefer that Putin did not meet Pashinyan at all.
So I’m kind of interested what the benefit from this meeting with Pashinyan will be. I think Pashinyan will derive, will try to maximize PR at home saying, see, you know, finally Putin met me. you know, to say.
Asbed Bedrossian: remember, when Pashinyan went to Moscow, he did not get to meet He got to meet Mishustin and officials, but not Putin. He was not able to get a meeting with them. So this happens to be in Bishkek, and they happen to be both there coincidentally, let’s say, and they’ll meet on the sidelines. And everything I’ve read says that Putin is going to tell him in the face exactly what he wants out of Armenia.
But I just want to say, when I read his greeting to Kocharyan about the whole friendly and allied ties developed under Kocharyan, it immediately told me that he’s telling Pashinyan, you’re no friend and you’re no ally. Okay?
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes.
Asbed Bedrossian: It’s implicit in his lines. and essentially he’s trying to put the guy on the defensive posture for the next day’s meetings. And it signals that he is expecting a formal conversation and accounting regarding the political landscape inside Yerevan, rather than just letting him focus strictly on matters like what does Pashinyan want to talk about. He wants to talk about railways, trade embargoes, and things like that. so it puts him on the defensive and a difficult conversation about this whole EU and Eurasian Economic Union topic. It’s not going to be easy.
Easy.
Hovik Manucharyan: agree, but I think it will be a very, very difficult conversation. I think it will probably be the last meeting between Pashinyan and Putin.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hmm, that’s interesting.
Hovik Manucharyan: But I mean, I would have chosen, like, you know, let him meet one of my underlings. Why does he need to meet me? because if Russia’s position is strong, and it is, I think, strong, then I don’t see what… Armenia and Pashinyan would derive more benefit, and he’s going to spin it his own way. But perhaps there are some things to communicate in person that cannot be communicated via telegrams.
So we’ll see.
Asbed Bedrossian: I think, yeah, well, it is a summit, so they have to be there in person rather than their underlings. Some of their underlings are also there, but, you know, maybe he could have claimed that he has to go to the bathroom and he didn’t have time.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, he’s not obligated to meet everyone there or have an official meeting.
Asbed Bedrossian: I don’t know. So, Hovik, we are talking about the SCO,
Asbed Bedrossian: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, that’s currently right now in progress. So I guess we can just go to covering that right now. And Armenia is also at this summit. And at last year’s summit, Armenia’s membership in the SCO was vetoed by Pakistan, and Azerbaijan’s was vetoed by India.
What do you think is up for discussion this time, if any?
Hovik Manucharyan: think many of these summits are, have a tendency to be like very formal gatherings where people just exchange good messages. and for me the proof will be if the SCO manages to convert some of the huge potential it has both in terms of the economic sphere with China and Russia and India and huge countries being part of it to real kinetic potential both economically and militarily I think the biggest elephant in the room is Iran. Trump has threatened sanctions against any country that deals with Iran. And Iran is also at this summit. And Iran has declared that their priorities are de-dollarization and more integration.
So.
Asbed Bedrossian: In fact, Hovik, can I quickly add that one of the agenda items that Ratcliffe brought to Moscow with him, the CIA director, was exactly about Moscow stopping its support of Iran.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: They wanted Moscow to stop supporting militarily, weaponry, technology. They want them to stop supporting Iran. And that, you know, you know how that went.
Hovik Manucharyan: Well, I mean, that’s what some media reported based on CIA leaks. I wouldn’t trust them, but I think that CIA is not in a position to dictate to Russia what to do. But I think, yes, of course, the U.S. is not pleased the same time,
Hovik Manucharyan: I’m a little bit underwhelmed at how slow this multipolarity and de -dollarization is going. because I think that we keep talking about for years that the rest of the world needs to have mechanisms to trade with each other that are not denominated in dollars, that are outside of the control of the U.S. empire. And have not seen any real-life implementation that would show me, okay, it’s going on right now and is now the mainstream way that countries trade with each other. I think a lot of these countries are scared. Like India, I think, is trying to walk a tightrope.
So are many countries that are there today. And I think it will take many more years for any of this to formalize into mechanisms that are, you know, are truly multipolar in nature, which is what I think we really need in the world today. sooner that these countries are free of the U.S. financial system, I think that it will be better for the world and for the U.S.
Hovik Manucharyan: as well. There’ll be less wars at least, you know.
Asbed Bedrossian: For every one of these topics that you are bringing up,
Hovik Manucharyan: Thank you.
Asbed Bedrossian: I keep thinking that we should be inviting the following guests or the other guests to our show. So many conversations to be had and so little time. So I’m going to take one moment, Hovik, to tell our listeners that you can support us by going to podcasts.groong.org/donate Become a sustaining member and help us automate ourselves and do a lot more technology improvements so that we can concentrate more of my and Hovik’s efforts on bringing conversations to you rather than worrying about the post-production, the pre-production, etc., etc. Thank you.
Podcasts.groong.org/donate don’t have commercials.
Hovik Manucharyan: your mid-reel commercial advertisement here. But just to discuss shop right now, we have automated huge portions of our pipeline,
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: Even in terms of video editing, you know, imagine an episode like this. It takes us about an hour to prepare, an hour to record, and then a couple hours to edit at least, and then do the post-editing, sharing, and everything. We’ve gotten that, you know, halved in terms of the amount.
Asbed Bedrossian: Some portions of that.
Hovik Manucharyan: you know a lot of that we have gotten that automated and through your support to
Asbed Bedrossian: Some portions of that.
Hovik Manucharyan: your finances and uh so we’re now working on automating other portions of it and you know that’s ideal for us i think for me i would love to just spend time on preparing for podcasts and recording them and somehow it gets auto edited and that would be like the final uh state for me so help us out yeah
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, yeah, yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: is there going to be a vote on admitting Armenia and Azerbaijan to, is there going to be a proposal again for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?
Hovik Manucharyan: No, I don’t think there will be.
Asbed Bedrossian: What do you think?
Hovik Manucharyan: I haven’t seen anything about that in the news. And also, I think that there is still basically a hold on Armenia’s membership and Azerbaijan’s membership. Last year, if you remember, when Armenia submitted its membership, Pakistan vetoed it.
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: And in exchange, India vetoed Azerbaijan’s membership. So, and I think those two, you know, those two issues will still…
Asbed Bedrossian: What about the situation where Armenia and Pakistan are basically establishing formal diplomatic relations? Would Pakistan be okay now?
Hovik Manucharyan: I don’t think, I think that Pakistan maybe will be okay when Turkey is okay and when Azerbaijan is okay. When there is, and we know that Azerbaijan will not even allow Turkey to establish relations with Armenia. So I think that Pakistan will be the last to follow. But I think that that will never happen because, you know, all this stuff about, you know, gaslighting, about peace and whatnot is an illusion in the first place.
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, closer to home, Hovik, at least in the past year’s developments,
Hovik Manucharyan: then, yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: I would think that Russia might be opposed to Armenia joining the SCO at this point in time. With this whole European Union versus Eurasian Economic Union flip-flop on the part of Armenia, here’s an organization that is promoting here’s Armenia that wants to align itself with the other pole.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: So I’m…
Hovik Manucharyan: It seems like the more steadfastly that Armenia marches towards Brussels, the farther east it ends up. So this year it ended up in Bishkek. And that’s like, yeah, geopolitical situation is such that not even Russia would support Armenia today.
Asbed Bedrossian: So yesterday, Pashinyan and Aliyev had a face-to-face. What did you get out of that?
Hovik Manucharyan: Lovely. They were like long-lost brothers meeting all of them.
Asbed Bedrossian: Very nice photo op. Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: Mirzoyan, Mirzoyan. It seems like they accomplished so much together. Wouldn’t you say? Like, if you look at them, they say, they have brought
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, and Alen Simonyan, by the way.
Hovik Manucharyan: just wish that maybe they just like go and have their orgies in, you know, in their own
Asbed Bedrossian: It’s almost like everybody got a second copy of Erdogan ’s book.
Hovik Manucharyan: whatever islands and not imagery aside, we can sort of repeat again that the regime in Armenia is directly controlled by the regime in Baku, and they want to present a narrative that there is now peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, even though the only peace that will happen is when Armenia fully capitulates and fully accedes to Aliyev’s demands.
That includes Western Azerbaijan, that includes settling Armenia with hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, that includes completely rewriting Armenia’s constitution, removing the nuclear power plant, and essentially turning Armenia into a welfare queen that is directly dependent on welfare from our enemies and that it’s hard but we have to say the truth and they can spin this in many ways they can send civil society to civil society whose paycheck depends on Western grants to go and meet and take photo ops. They can make Armenia import more Azerbaijani energy.
It’s funny that when you’re looking at, okay, is there any cooperation economically? There’s Armenia imported like 18 to $20 million of petroleum products from Azerbaijan. knowing full well that Azerbaijan cannot produce neither the fuel nor the grain that Armenia imported from Azerbaijan it’s all essentially Russian white-labeled Russian energy and Russian grains
Asbed Bedrossian: Right.
Hovik Manucharyan: yeah and Armenia exported less than a thousand dollars or something like that I
Asbed Bedrossian: was $960 worth of exports.
Hovik Manucharyan: forget nine hundred I export more than that to Amazon
Asbed Bedrossian: Ha ha
Hovik Manucharyan: So, yeah, that is ridiculous. There is nothing in terms of trade balance or any sign of how these nations would even trade with each other in a mutually beneficial way. So, again, we live in an illusion. There may be some surprises from the meeting between Pashinyan and Putin.
And since it hasn’t happened yet, we will tell you more about that next week when we do our weekend review.
Hovik Manucharyan: But there were other meetings Bishkek. I think that Pashinyan met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, regardless of our leader is, India is truly interested in expanding relations with Armenia as a counterweight to Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan. So apparently they discussed cooperation in economy, technology, pharmaceuticals, education.
I think all of these areas are very interesting. And if we had a normal leader, all of these would be way, way already in the advanced stages of development. Like, for instance, India has a very strong pharmaceuticals industry. And I can’t imagine why.
If you go to Armenia in drugstores, they have some of the highest for medicine in the region because they import much of their medicine from Europe. So Armenia could actually be a gateway for producing pharmaceuticals that could be used all around the Eurasian Economic Union market. Now that’s no longer an option, it seems, at least for now.
Hovik Manucharyan: there was also, in terms of Armenia-India cooperation, there was also this news that Armenia is acquiring a new Indian tactical missile system is essentially an Indian version of the Iskander-E that Armenia had already from Russia that Pashinyan didn’t use and blamed Russia for it.
Asbed Bedrossian: Because they only work 10%, I think.
Hovik Manucharyan: according to Pashinyan
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: yes so this missile system has a range of 290 kilometers you know military cooperation true military cooperation between Armenia and India would be welcome but I still sort of you know all of our questions remain how was India going to provide these to Armenia during wartime is Iran going to be okay with it so if Armenia alienates Iran with TRIPP, then okay, you have your Iran routes closed, how are you gonna supply Armenia during war?
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, I sure hope they’ve thought about that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, hope.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, let’s talk about one of my favorite topics to start ending the show on,
Asbed Bedrossian: and it’s the corruptions and the persecutions. And I’ll start with the persecutions, because we mentioned it briefly above. In the past two weeks, Pashinyan’s government has turned its primary focus from Tsarukyan and his enterprises to the Kocharyan family. We already mentioned they’ve imprisoned Kocharyan, and they’ve imprisoned Sedrak Kocharyan, his son, and his other son, Levon Kocharyan, is a member of parliament presently.
And they raided his apartment, and we’ve seen the pictures of SWAT basically showing up at the door like they’re breaking down a drug dealer’s place. Anyway, let me just make sure that you understand. The Tsarukyan issues and attacks are continuing, but the attention has shifted to Kocharyan enterprises. It’s kind of a cookie-cutter pattern of force and violence that continues from one former leader to another.
It’s just like the vendetta politics of Yerevan continues.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: On the good side, last week we wanted to mention that Aregnaz Manukyan was released finally.
Hovik Manucharyan: Asbed, she was not released.
Asbed Bedrossian: Was she simply allowed to see her daughter?
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes, yes. Manukyan is being held under treason charges.
Asbed Bedrossian: No, no.
Hovik Manucharyan: We’ve talked a lot about it, but what’s interesting is that the Armenian government, for about a period of a month, was not allowing her to even see her own underage child. and Arthur Martirosyan in our last episode talked about this eastern bazaar type of mentality that essentially is now prevalent in Armenian politics and in the region where essentially you’re holding families of people hostage or what would be the reason you would not allow someone to see their daughter for a month other than to torment them and the daughter
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, what kind of what does it say about human rights? What does it say about dignity that you would be able to get away with this, let alone even think about it? And unfortunately, Pashinyan is being allowed to get away with this. I mean, he was able to, I think, for a period of one month, prevent a mother from seeing her own child, 14-year-old child, until the media started raising a ruckus.
And finally, you know, this is part of that cookie-cutter approach. You know, he does something, he waits until there is blowback, and once there’s enough pressure, he accedes. But by that point, he has made his victims feel a lot of pain.
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, the timing is no coincidence, right? He has basically disabled these opposition-minded people from being able to cause them political damage. He just throws them in jail. A few months later, they are released.
I mean, there’s no rhyme and reason for entering the jail or exiting the jail. It’s just that for that period, and that period, for example, for Samvel Karapetyan was over a year.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: and that entire year during which there was a pre-election campaign, he was first of all in jail and then released to house arrest, basically. So that’s the pattern and we’re seeing it over and over. Chances are, this is the third time that Robert Kocharyan, the third or maybe fourth time, I’m losing count.
Hovik Manucharyan: Fourth, fourth.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, fourth time that Robert Kocharyan is being tried on a number of charges. And these charges stem from things that happened 22, 26, whatever numbers of years ago. And some judges initially basically dismissed case against him. And then they come back with same charges, but in a new way, from a new perspective, from another paragraph in the law.
And again, they keep him busy in the courts for months and months. And then the case goes away because it has no merit. This is the pattern.
Hovik Manucharyan: I remember the first time when the judge, this was for, I believe, March, the events of March 1st, when the judge
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, the March 1 thing.
Hovik Manucharyan: released him, Azaryan, if you remember. eventually it went through all the courts and he did get exonerated for that but what happened to the judge in the meantime
Asbed Bedrossian: What happened?
Hovik Manucharyan: well I think they opened the criminal case against him they searched his offices they sealed his office so that’s
Asbed Bedrossian: Unbelievable.
Hovik Manucharyan: what you get for going against that is an example that all judges now have in front of them and this is why people now like afraid to try the Catholicos or you know to because they know regardless
Asbed Bedrossian: Two judges, one judge has recused himself and the other judge has said, you know,
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: his court is not competent enough to do this and threw it over to Yerevan.
Hovik Manucharyan: No.
Asbed Bedrossian: want to repeat, Hovik, these judges know, I believe, that their name will go down in infamy. know, in our history, they will be named as infamous for having attempted to do this
Hovik Manucharyan: Exactly. We will have, unfortunately,
Asbed Bedrossian: against the Catholicos. So hopefully they know that.
Hovik Manucharyan: this period of Armenia in history will generate a lot of Vasak Syunis in history books. books. But, yeah, and rather than sort of, okay, comply with the government, which is also sort of, you know, risky, and try the Catholicos, two judges have basically recused themselves and said, okay, I’m not doing any of this. But I have a message for those two judges. Actually, you will see that eventually, you know, Pashinyan will let these two judges know what he really thinks about their actions.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, let me quickly mention that Avetik Chalabyan, leader of the HayaQve NGO, was also released about two weeks ago.
Hovik Manucharyan: And by released, I think we should qualify that, right?
Asbed Bedrossian: What were you going to say?
Hovik Manucharyan: He was released on bail. He is not allowed to leave the country, I believe. So all of these people are still political persecutees, and they suffer various forms of persecution, even probably paying a huge amount of money to get out of jail. but yeah we should not say that he was released from detention but the trial is still sort of will go on speaking of persecution so if you remember a couple of
Hovik Manucharyan: podcasts ago i was complaining that there is no database of armenian political persecutees well to my pleasant surprise Last week, the Armenian Center for Political Rights has released a section on their websites on political persecution, where you can go and details on each of these victims of the Pashinyan regime.
Asbed Bedrossian: the website?
Hovik Manucharyan: It’s acpr.center/persecutions. And we’ll put a link our show notes. But when you actually go look at it, and it tells you how many days each one of them have been deprived of liberty or other forms of persecution. I mean, for instance, Bagrat Galstanyan has been deprived of liberty now for 435 days. more than a year of that in the jails of the national security service and now like under house arrest and there are many more but i believe that this database is not
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: complete after having a quick review of it and i know the team they’re very methodical so they’re doing a very good job but they’re also very much understaffed and they’re all volunteers uh so my hope is that they will work to complete this database and it will be the source of truth essentially anything related to Armenian political prisoners. ACPR, of course, is an organization co-founded by Rafael Ishkhanyan, who has been on our podcast and does the Spotlight on Silence series with us and we hope to have him soon to talk about this and other issues on our podcast.
On the corruption side, remember during the elections there were so many reports
Hovik Manucharyan: about school administrators illegally bringing students to pre-election rallies of Pashinyan.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, underage and all types of kids over to these places.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, well…
Asbed Bedrossian: That’s right. So all of these administrators are in jail by now, right?
Hovik Manucharyan: No, no, this is Pashinyan’s Armenia. And in Pashinyan’s Armenia, they get strict reprimands and a slap on the wrist. No NSS raids at dawn, no imagery dragging people on the ground in shackles.
Asbed Bedrossian: No SWAT teams slamming them to the asphalt.
Hovik Manucharyan: What are you talking about? It’s just a few stolen votes. What could that matter? But no, the truth is that the Armenian government has confirmed that none of these administrators will be tried criminally, and they have only received strict reprimands.
There you go.
Asbed Bedrossian: Nobody has been fired and no charges have been brought against these people,
Hovik Manucharyan: Exactly.
Asbed Bedrossian: like you said. So that’s pretty amazing. So, Hovik, to close, in the past week, we talked to Ambassador Jack Matlock.
Asbed Bedrossian: We also talked, as you mentioned, to Arthur Martirosyan. Do you have any impressions you wanted to talk about? Because I can start this off with a comment. Earlier in the show, we mentioned something about wiser leadership.
And it’s so interesting to reflect back on Jack Matlock, who was talking about the time around 1991 when the Soviet Union basically dissolved, right? And the Cold War ended before that. And he said that it came upon wiser leaders, essentially, Reagan and Gorbachev negotiating diplomatically and in very respectful ways that the transformation of the Soviet Union, which ended up being the end of the Soviet Union. But we don’t have diplomacy like that today.
And that was very interesting for me.
Hovik Manucharyan: No, it was a great interview. He’s a hero in my book for everything he has done, including speaking out and telling the truth of what happened and about all the broken promises by the West and by the U.S. Empire. so it’s a great interview and i i feel gifted i feel honored to have had the chance to talk with ambassador matlock if you have missed it please make sure to uh go back
Asbed Bedrossian: I think it was episode 580.
Hovik Manucharyan: and watch it i think it’s yes
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, and don’t miss that. Go back to our channel and make sure that you listen to that. Ambassador Matlock is, I think, 95 years old. He was the final U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: So that’s a very important documentary piece, if nothing else.
Hovik Manucharyan: thoroughly enjoyed the interview with him. think he was still extremely sharp and he recalled many of the details from his meetings. I think he, what, I won’t say it’s criticism, but it’s regret that even from friends of Armenia, you know, We get a lot of talk and lecture about peace, like it is a done deal. to us about, well, now is the time for peace, forget about what happened. I, as an Armenian, I cannot forget about my Artsakh. I cannot forget about the land of my forefathers.
I cannot forget about all the brethren of mine who are now without homes and all the people who have given their entire lives for this fight. And I want justice for all of them, including all of our prisoners and hostages in Baku. And there can be no talk of any real peace until at least all of our prisoners are back. And it’s amazing that this is being now talked about like it’s a done deal.
And unfortunately, I think there will be a lot more demands from Azerbaijan.
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, Hovik, I think Ambassador Matlock, like a lot of our listeners and a lot of Western, let’s call them listeners public, are very altruistic in thinking when they read Western press and whatever,
Hovik Manucharyan: Exactly.
Asbed Bedrossian: that there’s an honorable peace going on. there’s a real effort to bring the injustices of history and figure them out and move together forward. I don’t believe that is what’s going on right now. There is an undignified peace happening. There is a coercive peace happening.
And I don’t think that is visible to the casual listener or observer.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes, unless you watch our podcast, which is why you should…
Asbed Bedrossian: That’s right.
Hovik Manucharyan: you should…
Asbed Bedrossian: If you listen to our podcast, you know that we are not quite there. So yeah, that’s a very important thing to keep in mind. One thing that struck me is that Matlock at the end was when we asked him about what kind of advice he would give to the Armenian government at present, he sounded to me so similar to Jeffrey Sachs when we talked to him, basically saying, don’t take side in the global geopolitical power games. You know, you have to look after your own interest and, in my words, I’m paraphrasing, become kind of an interstitial country that looks for its own interests and how to balance these powers.
Don’t be one of these countries that just says, we’re on this side or we’re on that side. They will look for themselves and you will lose. So that struck me when I heard that.
Hovik Manucharyan: No, Matlock is, you know, an extremely gifted diplomat and individual. And my critique is all about this world, imaginary world that has been created around us, that no matter how hard we scream, people don’t hear us. And even our friends and family who are not following Armenian news , they say, okay, well, I mean, why are you complaining so much? There’s peace now.
And I think that this is a problem that we’ve failed to solve through this podcast, right? I mean, if we had tens of thousands of views or 20,000 of views, but it’s a very difficult thing to sell.
Asbed Bedrossian: Mmh?
Hovik Manucharyan: To sell to our diaspora and potential listeners that, hey, you’re being sold off. your future is being sold off, your dignity is being sold off as an Armenian. And that is the truth. And you have to buy it. And you have to understand it.
And you have to, like, I had a big argument with my friend. He goes, well, tell me something good that is happening in Armenia. And I’m like, what do you want me to tell you? Our presidents, we have our hostage in Baku and Yerevan.
Our land is being chopped off one by one. What kind of good news do you want from me?
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, Hovik, what calls me is, of course, the big issue of Tigranashen, right? Tigranashen is basically the price for peace for the next few months. Now the turn has come after the elections to concede Tigranashen to them. Okay, if people look back on the history of the Tigranashen, back in the early years of the Soviet Union, there was no talk of that.
That was just part of Armenia. And then suddenly in the 40s, I think, Stalin gave it to the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, arbitrarily. And it wasn’t until 1989 that were some battles that happened, and finally it was taken back. It’s just a village that controls the roads between North and South Armenia, and that’s why it’s so important.
And that’s why they want it, because other than that, other than the ability to control and coerce Armenia, there’s no value to the Tigranashen.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Why would they not just basically say, okay, we’ll take a few square kilometers here, we’ll give you those square kilometers? No, they want that spot because it’s strategically important for Armenia. And that’s
Hovik Manucharyan: If you have not,
Asbed Bedrossian: the price.
Hovik Manucharyan: if you have not driven, if you’re not here, if you have,
Asbed Bedrossian: That’s the price to pay for peace. Is that real peace or is that coercive peace? Yeah, sorry to say, folks, if you want really good news, you’re probably going to have to find and tune in to the Disneyland News Network or something like that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Until things change, there’s a lot to worry about and we will talk about those things.
Hovik Manucharyan: Armenia will go through a lot of trials and
Asbed Bedrossian: A lot of pain.
Hovik Manucharyan: tribulations.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: There is nothing that is going to be easy. There is going to be more bad news. And until we help somehow wake up our audience and, you know, inform them, as many people as we can about this, then, you know, we are not going to be on a path to recovery anytime soon. have not hit rock bottom yet, unfortunately, to use a drug addiction metaphor.
Asbed Bedrossian: Okay, well, on that happy note, I guess, Hovik, we’re going to call it a day. Thank you, everyone, for listening to us. And we’ll talk to you next week. I’m Asbed Bedrossian.
Today is September 1st, 2026.
Hovik Manucharyan: And I’m Hovik Manucharyan. Thank you for watching and listening.