Warning: This is a rush transcript generated automatically and may contain errors.
Asbed Bedrossian: Everyone, this is Groong’s Week in Review for October 11, 2026. Today is October 13. Hovik, how are you doing?
Hovik Manucharyan: Doing well, Asbed, how are you?
Asbed Bedrossian: I’m good. I wanted to let our listeners know that although it’s been a couple of weeks since we put out a week in review, we did record one last week. And typical of our times, we were recording well after midnight. And when we started editing, we both sounded terribly dead and felt like it’s not worth for our listeners’ time.
And therefore, we chucked it. We decided not to publish it. So here we go again.
Hovik Manucharyan: Let’s hope that today we’re less dead.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hopefully we’re a little less dead. I think I feel better. Last week we talked about things like Russian-Armenian relations having some problems and how Azerbaijan is tightening the screws and ramping up rhetoric on Pashinyan to deliver some of the post-election promises that he has made. Of course, we talked about the Azerbaijani soldier who infiltrated into Armenia and this village of Shaki shot a mother in her own home trying to defend her children.
We’ll touch on that one a little bit later because that topic is evolving. But Hovik, why don’t you take us into our topics?
Hovik Manucharyan: I guess the most important, the most interesting issue to me Armenia’s apparent about-face on this nuclear power plant. So after months touting the Western SMRs or specifically the U.S. SMRs as foundational for Armenia’s next power plant, he literally, up until a few weeks ago, Pashinyan was saying that this is going to be, our next nuclear power plant is going to be a US-based SMR, or some kind of an SMR.
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: He didn’t say US-based, but we all know what that meant. Armenia essentially appears to be signaling a major pivot, citing surging energy needs from the new AI data center. I mean, this is basically a surprise, right?
Asbed Bedrossian: Thank you.
Hovik Manucharyan: All of this information somehow was not apparent.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hm.
Hovik Manucharyan: And somehow it became apparent that since Armenia is going to invest heavily in data centers, it needs more energy than it can acquire through SMRs. And therefore, citing that as a reason, said that the SMRs may no longer satisfy Armenia’s needs. And now Armenia is considering Russia’s offer to build a larger-scale gigawatt plant. That’s the traditional, I guess, you know, plants that Russia is now building that have been vetted and securely built in I think they have one even inside the EU, Hovik.
Asbed Bedrossian: I think they have one even inside the EU, Hovik.
Hovik Manucharyan: And what’s interesting, though, to me.
Asbed Bedrossian: In Hungary, I think they’ve built one.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, just for reference, the reference implementations for this that exist currently in the Russian market or developed by Rosatom are the VVER-1000, which is about a gigawatt, and then the VVER-1200, which is 1.2 gigawatts. And they both take about eight years to build and cost about $5.5 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively. So both cost less than the US-based SMR that Armenia was foolishly considering before. Now, I don’t know, you know, I think this is, of course, interesting in and of itself.
But to me, the geopolitics about this is also very interesting, because I think it is being considered as in this package of details between Armenia and Russia, in this supposed meeting that’s going to happen between Pashinyan and Putin . And in that package are multiple different things. The Russian railways concession in Armenia is one of those. Apparently, the 102nd Russian military base in Armenia is also on the deal. the Russian border guards, you know, currently deployed in various border positions that help guard the Armenian borders are also part of it.
And of course, Armenia’s membership in the EAEU and this whole big hoopla between Armenia and Russia, essentially everything is on the table. And supposedly it’s going to all come out when Putin and Pashinyan meet. So I don’t know what Pashinyan is signaling and given his own unreliable and frankly, sort of disingenuous and cheating nature, you know, both to his own people and to his colleagues. I don’t know what the outcome of this, you know, what outcome Pashinyan is seeking.
Maybe this is like a throwing and offering to Putin in exchange for Russia agreeing to give up the Russian railways concession. from Russia’s perspective that is very important I think it’s more important for Russia than the military presence in the form of the 102nd military base in Gyumri because Russia really wants to control transportation and communication routes along its soft underbelly then also Pashinyan certain countries have a problem with Russia having this railway concession. And I believe those certain countries are definitely, you know, the European countries that are actively preparing for war with Russia.
So it seems like both, there’s a lot at stake in terms of Russia, this railway concession and Russia’s interests in transportations in the south of Armenia. is part of that. But if you just take it by itself, of course it goes without saying that Armenia, that nuclear energy is one of the primary ways now, given that de facto leadership of Armenia has given up Artsakh , has given up all our military sort of strategic depth, this is the only way that Armenia can have a shred of strategic sovereignty, especially energy sovereignty in the region.
And I’ve frequently talked that Armenia needs multiple nuclear power plants, large nuclear power plants, not just one. So to me this sounds like the right move but I don’t trust Pashinyan’s public sort of bargaining like this so I guess we’ll see what’s going to happen what are your thoughts about this?
Asbed Bedrossian: I think it’s tough to dissociate the geopolitics from, for example, whether this is about energy requirements or anything like that. I mean, a long time ago, it seemed to me that national interests were all about territorial defense. Now everything is about securing energy and trade corridors. So one is the other, essentially.
And both aspects are at play here. I think Russia is tightening the screws around the Armenian economy and directly pressuring Pashinyan to make some decisions while showing him the advantages of continued association with Russian-led interests, for example. We’ve talked about the CSTO in the past. We’ve talked about the EAEU.
And we’re now talking about Russian railroad concessions and the nuclear power plant. So we’re going from territorial issues to energy and trade issues. And this is what’s going on, in my view. Meanwhile, you and I on this show have talked extensively about the megawatt math doesn’t really add up for SMRs, right?
Past our concerns about the novelty of the SMR technology nuclear power plants being applied to a country like Armenia, the SMR plants simply don’t provide enough power for the rising needs of Armenia’s economy. But Pashinyan suddenly started citing the SMRs, to repeat, provide, give or take, you know, some amount, 350-ish megawatts of power. Well, each AI data center may grow to consume just about all of that. So if there are two data centers, one in Hrazdan and another one is being planned in Sevan, well, that’s going to take a couple of these power plants.
Each one costs about $8 billion. dollars. Each one costs about a decade, possibly more, because we don’t know. The technology is not widely applied. And the data center requirements are ramping up to a reported 2029 release.
So nothing really is adding up. Now, the Russian power plants have been proven. They are going to provide one or 1.2 gigawatts. And, you know, they’re still going to take about 10 years to build.
However, there are a couple of aspects of the Metsamor nuclear power plant that is currently in operation. You and I have sometimes differed about whether that power plant has been extended until 2031 or 2036. And that’s exactly the kind of screw that can apply on Pashinyan and say technology, and you get this power plant operating until 2036, when we’re pretty sure to have the next power plant ready for you. Or our commitments end.
Currently, they end in 2031. So good luck powering your data centers without a nuclear power plant or anything like that. I think this is some of the math that’s going on with all these conversations between, how do you say his name, Likhachev or Likhachev?
Hovik Manucharyan: Likhachev, ja.
Asbed Bedrossian: Likhachev. Right. So that’s the kind of conversations that he is having with both Putin and also Pashinyan, because he’s adding up a lot of mileage between Moscow and Yerevan right now in preparation for this summit between Pashinyan and Putin in Moscow.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, my own issue is I think I have a deep mistrust in Pashinyan being able to be a reliable partner. So the fact that he’s now about faced on this issue, I don’t know if this is a plea by him to sort of ensure his survival as the head of Armenia, but I don’t think his European masters or, going to be okay with this decision. So it’d be interesting to see the reactions from Europe. And I’m wondering whether the recent sort of criticism of the Armenian elections in the PACE and so forth was related to this, you know, and yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Absolutely, Hovik. I was going to tell you, we have already seen the beginnings of that reaction.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah. Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: And, you know, well, you know, listen, you and I are both techies in many ways. So from an engineering perspective, what are the advantages and disadvantages of having a single gigawatt at the center of the country, let’s say, instead of having theoretically a number of small modular reactors around the country? because that was one of the ideas that the West was proposing, that it’s better to have a few around the country so that the grid is not overloaded, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, this country has been built around Metsamor in a sense. So it’s used to having a giant power plant and the stability of the grid assured.
What are your thoughts?
Hovik Manucharyan: I think, in the future. And as the future of these data centers, it requires more and more energy. I don’t think there is a problem with Armenia having multiple one gigawatts or larger,
Asbed Bedrossian: Mmh.
Hovik Manucharyan: because I think either all of that energy can be exported or it can be used up internally through these data centers. And therefore, I don’t subscribe to this idea that Armenia is a one nuclear power station country. The only advantage that modular nuclear power plants provide is once they are developed, once they’re vetted, It seems to me that it’s easier to deploy.
But I don’t think that besides that, the modular nuclear power plants provide any advantage. and in fact having a large nuclear power plant also helps Armenia I would say it ensures a bigger footprint worldwide in terms of countries that have nuclear power and are treated more respectfully than countries
Hovik Manucharyan: that don’t
Asbed Bedrossian: I have a couple of other aspects that I wanted to
Hovik Manucharyan: That’s all I can say.
Asbed Bedrossian: bring to the table. Analysts have pointed out that any nuclear power plant is going to create a significant energy and therefore national security dependency for the decades to come. I mean, you build a nuclear power plant and you’re attached to it for 50 years. Metsamor was created in 1972 or 1974, something like that.
So it’s been quite a long time. may be even more resilient, may last for another 50, 60 years. So they say that, these analysts say that under the circumstances, the most important thing is not the dependency itself. We’re going to be dependent, whether we like it or not. It’s the management of that dependency.
So given that thought, Hovik, how do you inform your choice of nuclear power plants?
Hovik Manucharyan: I think that right now there is little choice that Armenia has other than it will be either to accept dependency on Russian technology, dependency on a much more expensive U.S. technology which has to extend its operations halfway across the world, or dependency on Turkey and Azerbaijan. and to me it’s the least worst of the three alternatives and in the future if Armenia has room for or demands for more energy then it can also consider suppliers of nuclear energy South Korea, China, they all are I think on par with the Russian design. So to Russian dependency, Armenia could also have dependency on Chinese or other countries’ reactors.
Asbed Bedrossian: Looking at it politically as well. And I thought, so we’re going to be dependent on one large country, whether that is the United States or the UK or France or China or Russia. And I thought dependency on Russia is probably the best option for Armenia, to be honest. It’s not going to sound good to be dependent at all.
But if you are talking about having to be dependent, Armenia has a lot more influence on Russia than, for example, on either France or the United States. Armenia is nothing to the United States. Armenia is almost nothing to France.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: They’re just, we’re just a convenience for them. But with Russia, there are a lot more interactions. For example, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, we’re still members of the CSTO. still members of the Eurasian Economic Union. Those are important interrelations between Russia and Armenia, and therefore Armenia can affect some of the relationship.
I mean, look, this Russian concession issue that Pashinyan put on the table has probably brought Russia back to the table with a different offer that involves nuclear power plant and the Russian concessions, probably, behind closed doors. I don’t know all of the details. But that means there is something to it. Meanwhile, when Pashinyan went and signed the TRIPP agreement in Washington, there was absolutely no effect on the United States.
It was just basically signed here, here, photo op with Trump and Aliyev , goodbye. Get out of here.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Trump hardly even remembers his name, to be honest, in other meetings. So in Russia, Armenia is a bigger fish. In Washington, Armenia is nothing. So I would say it’s better to depend on someone that you can influence a little bit more than someone else.
One final aspect, Hovik.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, yeah, anti-Russian, yeah, go ahead.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, anti-Russian people are not going to like that, but, you know,
Hovik Manucharyan: They’re not going to like that, but you have there has to be, of course,
Asbed Bedrossian: they should think about that.
Hovik Manucharyan: strategic ways to control dependency. And I think that that is possible. But when you have a choice between Turkey, Azerbaijan or Russia, I would, you know, I hope you guys, you know, can make the right choice.
Asbed Bedrossian: Haha.
Hovik Manucharyan: I don’t know. Sometimes I doubt that. But, you know, I’ve seen so many weird ideas from Armenians.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, I have another issue that I want to put on the table, and that has to do, I don’t have a good answer for it. I just want to ask the questions. I remain concerned about the legislative protections provided by Armenia for its citizens. A lot of data centers currently are running out of the Western countries.
They can’t build in Germany. They can’t build in France. They can’t build the United States. There’s a whole lot of NIMBYism going on.
Many communities don’t want these data centers in their backyards. They’re creating zoning laws. They’re creating hurdles and making it very expensive for data centers to be built in, let’s say, their counties, their neighborhoods. So these countries are escaping to other countries that have much weaker legislative protections for their people against the kind of damage that data centers will do to the environment, to the communities and neighborhoods.
And I’m just not sure if Armenia has those protections. Right now, it just looks like, oh, foreign direct investments, FDI, bring it in, bring it in. You want to invest 300 million and create 20 jobs here? Go ahead.
We’re at that level right now. But soon enough, I think that there will be some damage to Armenia’s ecology, despite everything that’s being reported. And I’m concerned about that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah, since we’ve switched from nuclear power plants to data centers, I think it’s important to talk about it. And I think I would like to offer one more…
Asbed Bedrossian: We haven’t completely switched, Hovik. If we’re going to be building one or 1.2 gigawatt power plants,
Hovik Manucharyan: No!
Asbed Bedrossian: it means that we are inviting more data centers because there’s capacity.
Hovik Manucharyan: Actually, ditch the data centers, keep the nuclear power plants.
Asbed Bedrossian: Right?
Hovik Manucharyan: That’s my formula. But since we’re talking about data centers and how great and wonderful that is, I would like to re-extend our invitation to the people associated with Firebird. you have my emails, you have my messages I’ve contacted you numerous times we promise that we won’t bite just come on our show and tell us and our listeners why the data center is such a good idea and tell us how you will ensure without any doubt Armenia’s environmental protections because that is really important for us and until that happens, until we know how much water you plan to drain from Lake Sevan? We really can’t answer that.
You know, going by your press releases is some kind of closed loop technology, but it’s all just marketing gimmick with all due respect. So just tell us exactly or tell someone in the media exactly how much water you plan to drain from Lake Sevan. Given that this upcoming next few weeks, there’s going to be COP17, in which Armenia’s de facto guided by Turkish leaders, is going to pretend that it cares about the environment, I would really love to know from the founders of Firebird AI how much exactly you plan on relying on Sevan’s water. Can you please let us know that?
Thank you.
Asbed Bedrossian: Okay, Hovik, let’s move on to our next topic, if you don’t mind. I want to talk a little bit about this Shaki business. No need to rehash our entire unpublished effort at this topic last week. However, it’s still alive.
Things are happening.
Hovik Manucharyan: And so is the infiltrator, unfortunately.
Asbed Bedrossian: Right. Well, he’s in prison, at least. That’s a good thing. I read a harrowing account of the attack by Ani Avetisyan on her family, where she tells of her struggle to save her children as she was getting shot.
Okay. Meanwhile, for Pashinyan, this entire issue has nothing to do with an enemy state infiltrating into Armenia. The reasons why the serviceman was in Armenia or anything, he just says that it’s just a common crime. You know, maybe he sees that Azerbaijanis entering Armenian homes and shooting mothers are going to be common in the future.
So maybe that’s what he’s thinking. But I was absolutely appalled by that comment that this is just a common crime. I think it’s a state level crime. The Armenian government has done everything it can to play down the Azerbaijani aspect of the whole thing. and pretend like the peace process has actually made communication better.
And therefore, we were warned. And of course, we didn’t do anything. What do you think about this whole business anyway?
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, it’s more than disgusting, Asbed. Imagine as a mother, as a parent going into a room, finding an enemy soldier with an automatic rifle pointed at your children, and all your parental instincts kick in. and her motherly instincts kicked in. She tried to defend her children. They were being threatened by the enemy.
And we have the leader, the de facto leader of the country saying, well, you know, he was just resting. He was just resting and he was seeking refuge. So the Armenian reaction, even if we take at face value the fact that Azerbaijan notified Armenia on September 28 or September 29. Even if we take that fact at face value, apparently the Armenian leaders sought to hide this from its population for two days until this wandering Azeri traveled 20 kilometers inside Armenia into a village on the other side of Armenia, found this home to rest in, came in, he threatened them, and when their mom came in, he shot her.
And in fact, she now is facing the loss of limbs as a result of trying to defend,
Asbed Bedrossian: fingers, yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: not just fingers, but her foot as well. just, this, you know, puppet of Aliyev in Armenia is saying that, well, you know, she should have waited for the cops to come. And I think the cops were called like, you know, there were tests. There was testimony that cops were called like for a long time and they didn’t come. And when she heard that her family, her own family, her own children were threatened by this, she took action.
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm-hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: And I think that any individual, you know, defending their own property would have the moral and legal right to do that. And the Armenian government is doubt. De facto government, I should say. Anyway, so that’s all I can say.
But I think in reality, there may be more to this. There were Azerbaijani and Turkish exercises throughout the month of September and Pakistani around Armenia. and it’s not, to me, I’m not convinced that this is not part of that some kind of a infiltration attempt as part of an exercise, live exercise, uh, yeah
Asbed Bedrossian: Even as an exercise, yeah, absolutely. I mean, they’ve built model Armenian villages or towns and practiced
Hovik Manucharyan: of that to be
Asbed Bedrossian: infiltration on those. So, who knows? Maybe this was one of those exercises.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: The other thing that’s appalling, Hovik, is that it took, what,
Hovik Manucharyan: And And…
Asbed Bedrossian: about 12 days for the Armenian legal system to declare Ani Avetisyan as a victim. And the enemy soldier as a, what is it, a perpetrator or an offender or something like that. It’s just, it’s ridiculous. You have an armed enemy soldier in an Armenian village 20 kilometers past the border, shooting an Armenian mother with her two children in her own home.
And it takes them two weeks to declare the mother a victim. There is that much processing about how we’re going to spin the PR on this so that we don’t offend Azerbaijan.
Hovik Manucharyan: This, yeah, I mean, this just highlights how far we have traveled in terms of security, in terms of lack of security. I mean, eight years ago, ten years ago, this would be unheard of. And all of those Pashinyan worshipers today would be at arms, you know, trying to cause revolutions, if anything like this happened during the previous regime. But of course, nothing like that would have happened with the previous regime, I contend, because the previous regime was not traitorous.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: So anyway, I mean, yes, there were some fake dismissals from the National Security Service and I believe the Army from this. But I think it’s just a way to deflect responsibility.
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, there’s one fellow from the NSS, and
Hovik Manucharyan: They’re doing their best to do that, yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: I think Major General Sanamyan, and one fellow from the army who have been dismissed. And I always felt like these are mid-level punishments, scapegoats.
Hovik Manucharyan: Scapegoats.
Asbed Bedrossian: And in the parliament, the opposition has been wanting to talk with the defense minister and the NSS head. able to get that. So now they’re proposing a bill to have those people come mandatorily and report to the parliament, even if it has to be behind closed doors or subcommittee. I’m sure that Civil Contract is going to bat that bill down because they don’t want to be accountable about anything at all. But that’s where we stand right now in the parliament.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Okay, Hovik, a couple more topics let’s touch on.
Asbed Bedrossian: Strong Armenia’s leader, Samvel Karapetyan, has reiterated over the past few days his commitment to uniting anti-government forces to challenge Nikol Pashinyan. Speaking from his ongoing and sham trial, may I say, he announced that his party plans to rally the real opposition, as he said, and group them around an upcoming political program, which he has called Peace Without Concessions. There was a little bit of discussion in his video interview about that, but not many details are known at this point in time. But he has also not detailed exactly who the real opposition is.
I know that there have been a lot of comments regarding, for example, Tatoyan’s party not being completely aligned and things like that. Do you know more about what he’s thinking or what he is planning with this real opposition?
Hovik Manucharyan: No, I don’t. Unfortunately, I don’t. But all I can say is less talk, more action, Mr. Karapetyan, we have had enough talk about trying to get rid of this regime.
And every day now, I think, counts. I think they keep mentioning that they need to have this trigger, but how many more triggers do we need? How many more mothers need to be shot in their own homes trying to defend their children? How many more territories does Armenia need to hand over to Azerbaijan before people get on the streets?
And I’m pretty sure that the collective will of prominent people such as Robert Kocharyan and Samvel Karapetyan, if put to good use and if synchronized, is sufficient to put together plans on getting rid of this regime. And I would urge both major opposition parties to hopefully sit behind closed doors, and if they haven’t yet, and to plan on how they’re going to pull us out of this mess that we have found ourselves in.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, I sympathize a little more with them than you do. I know your patience has run out. For one specific reason, both of these leaders spend a lot of time in court. They are under house arrest and jail.
Hovik Manucharyan: Ennugel.
Asbed Bedrossian: They are under house arrest. They are in pre-trial detention. They are constantly being called back to court and then they go back home or whatever. it’s a major problem. We don’t talk about it week in and week out, but the fact is that Kocharyan has regular visitations to the court to keep the trials going. trials going.
Samvel Karapetyan is in pre-trial detention. He’s under house arrest. He is under heavy surveillance and cannot freely go around and do things. Most people don’t even know what kind of chains the opposition, especially the main opposition in the parliament, is operating under.
Gagik Tsarukyan’s party, the BHK,
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: is similarly, I mean, Tsarukyan, we know his properties have been seized, the cement factory has been shut down, and of all things, of course, there’s a cement shortage now in Armenia that’s affecting the construction industry,
Hovik Manucharyan: Imagine that.
Asbed Bedrossian: which has been one of the gangbuster
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: industries in Armenia, keeping the economic growth going. But suddenly, they are having problems. And we talk about shooting yourself in the foot. But of course, the main goal is not the economy or anything like that.
It’s just PR numbers and making sure that the opposition is unable to be effective. This is how they’re operating. And this is why I have a little more sympathy for them than right now you are telling us.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, I think that, yes, that’s all true. And I think, just to be clear, Robert Kocharyan is also under full arrest in jail. All of their businesses are now threatened, but this is what they signed up for. This is part and parcel of what they signed up for.
And their promise was to save the Armenian people from this hell that we live in right now. and I mean a lot of us have given up a lot and yes I can’t imagine what it is to be like in jail and all of your hard works you know earnings or whatever you know all of your possessions being threatened but that is what they signed up for so I’m going to hold them to it
Asbed Bedrossian: Well, you have repeatedly called the Firebird people to come to our show and
Hovik Manucharyan: but yeah Thank you.
Asbed Bedrossian: talk with us. So it’s my turn to make a call. I’ll call Narek Karapetyan to the Groong podcast to talk to us. I know he speaks English.
He’s been on Tucker Carlson in the past and talked to us about some of these issues, some of these problems that they are facing, and also some of the plans that they have. for example, what is this Peace Without Concessions and more details about it. So, Narek, come on our show.
Hovik Manucharyan: Alright, I second that.
Asbed Bedrossian: Okay, Hovik, let’s move on to our final and favorite topic, corruptions and persecutions. Last week, we talked a little bit about persecutions. If we have time, we’ll bring that back. But about corruptions, this week, Lena Matevosyan, a Strong Armenia MP, requested information about the expenses that the Armenian government is incurring on account of COP17.
This is the biodiversity convention that’s going to be in Yerevan next week, I think October 19th to 30th. Deputy Foreign Minister Robert Abisoghomyan was unable to respond, except to say that the government had transferred $2.2 million to the COP17 account. Now, this account is managed by a company called Doping Space. And you may think that you’ve heard about this company, and you would be right.
The company is fully associated with Civil Contract circles, not to say cronies. The Ministry of Education has demanded that Doping Space return a million and a half dollars of overcharges for a J.Lo concert that happened a year ago, and also a Snoop Dogg concert, which never happened, and I think the amount over there was six million dollars. Now, in all of these instances, let’s also remember that Doping Space was hired without a tender, which is required by law. They just basically declare some kind of an urgent situation,
Hovik Manucharyan: Single source, yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: have time or whatever, and they single source it to Doping Space because it’s a crony that’s associated with them. I mean, Hovik, would you hire illegally, without a tender, a company that owes you money, that refuses to give your money back, and chances are that you’re going to have to sue in court. Now you’re giving them more business and you’re just transferring millions of dollars to them. What is all this about?
It’s kind of a rhetorical
Hovik Manucharyan: It is a rhetorical question.
Asbed Bedrossian: question, I know, and we’re both laughing at it, but it’s just, how could this happen?
Hovik Manucharyan: It is corruption , but as long as Civil Contract is doing it, you know, it’s pretty much okay by everyone watching. and this is just one example of the immense corruption in Armenia that is going unchallenged. Whereas previous instances, they were under full scrutiny of the international community. One thing that we didn’t get to cover a lot was this whole saga between Hayk Sargsyan and Alen Simonyan if you remember Alen Simonyan essentially presented to the Armenian parliament and they passed legislation to disallow gambling in Armenia
Asbed Bedrossian: Hmm.
Hovik Manucharyan: except the loophole was that online gambling could stay and the number one online gambling operator in Armenia is Alen Simonyan’s very close friend and benefactor, close friend and benefactor, Vivarobet, basically that company. And now as a result, they closed down all the physical gambling locations or most of them. And everyone now has been driven to gamble online and enrich, Alen Simonyan’s friends. And, I mean, the gambling, I think, industry in Armenia is, I think I heard the number of 7 trillion dram, $15 billion, like, I
Asbed Bedrossian: Regardless, what a waste.
Hovik Manucharyan: what I heard.
Asbed Bedrossian: Jesus.
Hovik Manucharyan: And this government is acting like they saved people from gambling, where they just enabled their, you know, oligarchs to get richer. I mean, these oligarchs are getting richer by a billion dollars every year. And if you thought that Robert Kocharyan had $2 billion and were, for 20
Asbed Bedrossian: Ha ha ha.
Hovik Manucharyan: years, they were like, you know, complaining about this $2 billion. Pashinyan oligarchs related to gambling just from the gambling sector get rich every year by about that much money so that’s the scale of corruption in Armenia now
Hovik Manucharyan: speaking about corruption one of my friends ran into a Save Amulsar graffiti on one of the streets in Yerevan and he sent me the photo and said what is this about I go that was from 8 years ago
Asbed Bedrossian: Mm.
Hovik Manucharyan: when the regime change operation wanted to pretend they were environmentally friendly in fact Lena Nazaryan who is the deputy director of the Armenian parliament and strong Civil Contract top one of their top leaders that was her pet project you know, “Save Amulsar”, Amulsar is going to be mined it’s going to be bad for the environment it’s going to be bad for the people of the region so eight years later no people about Amulsar Amulsar the operation is ongoing and except it’s now enriching Pashinyan and their oligarchs so that’s why it’s being allowed to continue
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, so we didn’t get to talk a whole lot about Amulsar. That was a topic we had on our mind. And the thing is that the companies that own the concerns or whatever that own that company, Lydian Canada, I think is one of them, they had to award the Armenian government 12.5%. That seems to be the Pashinyan cut, the standard Pashinyan cut that goes on.
For example, if you recall, the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine also had to award the Armenian government 12.5%. There was another company that I don’t remember right now. So it’s just the standard cut that they have to give. I have no idea exactly what happens to that 12.5% cut, the Armenian government is richer or somebody’s making out with it.
I just don’t know. once that happened, and the people involved with Amulsar became Civil Contract cronies, everything was a go. No more concerns.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: Eight years later.
Hovik Manucharyan: managing all of these projects, including Tigran Avinyan , managing all of these projects, including Tigran Avinyan, after he took the mandate of managing this 12% from the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine. and you will see that Civil Contract’s, officials being paid extremely large amounts of money to do these things, to manage
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: 12% and that somehow is okay. So the last thing, since we’re here.
Asbed Bedrossian: Pashinyan attended the Amulsar opening in the past week, and he declared it as one of the great successes of the Armenian economy in his
Hovik Manucharyan: Mm-hmm.
Asbed Bedrossian: time. This was pretty much all done before his time,
Hovik Manucharyan: Mm-hmm.
Asbed Bedrossian: and it would have happened in 2018 had he not his eco-environmentalists, kind of like those eco-environmentalists in Artsakh right before.
Hovik Manucharyan: Lucky the Artsakh, Brad.
Asbed Bedrossian: That’s right. Let’s not go there. But anyway, so it has opened.
Hovik Manucharyan: Amulsar has been saved.
Asbed Bedrossian: And the one good thing is that gold is a lot more expensive right now than in 2018. So hopefully Armenia somehow will make good with that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: you mentioned Tigran Avinyan and I don’t mean to rant on and on and on about this stuff but one of the things that has been in my mind is this Doping Space business I have no idea why the Yerevan municipality or the Armenian government have to be involved in concerts I mean it’s kind of like a communist country where everything has to happen only through the government, if these concerts are profitable enterprises, then why doesn’t Doping Space just become a company that does its business and brings these things and sets them up and keep the profit?
Why does the Armenian government have to be involved in funding this, finding venues, etc., etc.? I just don’t get that.
Hovik Manucharyan: Bread and circuses.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah, yeah, let’s just move on.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, yeah. I mean, that’s another rhetorical question, I think. seems to work because when I talk with a lot of people who are visiting Armenia, like, okay, there’s a semblance of social things happening. There’s a semblance of concerts, you know, being devoured from the outside by its enemies. Hey, you know, in Yerevan there are parties and wine festivals and Doping Space
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, read Armenpress, you know, not because we love Armenpress,
Hovik Manucharyan: happening. Yeah.
Asbed Bedrossian: but it’s because it’s the Armenian government’s mouthpiece, basically, on paper. Every week, there’s this festival, that festival, this international conference or that convention. It’s a constant infusion of stuff happening. And it’s all kind of managed through a company fronting the Armenian government.
You know, it’s just, I don’t get it.
Hovik Manucharyan: I mean, you should look at the amount of money.
Asbed Bedrossian: It feels artificial to me. More money spent on the military parade than the military.
Hovik Manucharyan: last thing. So COP17 is coming up October 19th through 30th.
Asbed Bedrossian: Yeah.
Hovik Manucharyan: This government has essentially decided that education is so important for Armenian children. And, you know, since we scored so high on these recent PISA tests,
Asbed Bedrossian: Thank you.
Hovik Manucharyan: they have essentially stopped all school during the period when these COP17 things are going to happen. Because, you know, who needs education? But, OK, so you’re going to focus on the environment, right? One of the most important environmental issues, I think, is the fact that we have, I mean, not just Amulsar, not just threatening the water level in Lake Sevan.
Hovik Manucharyan: part of the occupation of Armenia by Azerbaijan, is essentially cutting down Armenian forests. And this is a huge threat now, especially to the Shikahogh Natural Reserve,
Asbed Bedrossian: Over 60 hectares were reported.
Hovik Manucharyan: where Azerbaijan has set up shop. Yeah, yeah. And so they asked the Armenian government whether COP17 would be used as a platform for talking about this. And the Armenian government said it would violate the principles of COP17 presidency if Armenia used the conference’s multilateral negotiating platform to raise environmental damage linked to Azerbaijan’s military presence.
So there you go. And I guess this is why Azerbaijan allowed COP17 to happen in Armenia.
Asbed Bedrossian: Hovik, what we seem to have is concessions without peace. That’s what intrigues me about this peace without concessions initiative
Hovik Manucharyan: Yes.
Asbed Bedrossian: from Karapetyan. Okay, with that, let’s close. This was our Week in Review, recorded on October 13, 2026. We look forward to talking with you next week.
I’m Asbed Bedrossian.
Hovik Manucharyan: And I’m Hovik Manucharyan. Have a great week.