Two of the Kremlin's top propagandists are openly calling for war against Armenia.
On Sunday, Margarita Simonyan—head of Russian state-funded broadcaster RT—reacted to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's appearance at a European summit in Yerevan by declaring it was "time to think about protecting the Russian population and our interests in that country." "Protecting the Russian population" is the exact justification President Vladimir Putin used for the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Solovyov, Russia's highest-rated television anchor, has gone further still, calling on air for a "special military operation" against Armenia.
This is the soundtrack to a Kremlin campaign that began the moment Yerevan turned west—and it is now reaching its decisive moment. On June 7, Armenia votes. The parliamentary election is a referendum on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and, more consequentially, on whether his country continues toward the West and peace, or returns to managed conflict under Russian dominion. Washington has weeks, not months, to make sure it ends the right way.
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Joseph Epstein is Director of the Turan Research Center.