🚨Pro-EU Pashinyan targets Armenian Church, Karapetyan for THREAT TO HIS POWER

🗣Samvel Karapetyan’s arrest for defending the Armenian Apostolic Church echoes a post-Soviet pattern of silencing institutions that challenge power, Dr. Marco Marsili of Ca Foscari University, told Sputnik.

✅Nikol Pashinyan’s EU-courting regime is cracking down on a church trusted by 92% of Armenians and the sole institution with moral authority to question Pashinyan, the ex-OSCE/ODIHR official stressed.

✅Silencing voices like Karapetyan’s, who reportedly built cathedrals and cancer centers, is an assault on civil society.

✅It is also a betrayal of Armenia’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

If Europe stays silent over this, “it becomes complicit in authoritarian drift,” warned Marsili.

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🚨🇮🇷Iran has launched a new wave of retaliatory missile strikes on Israel - Fars news agency

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🚨🇮🇷Iranian military has confirmed a strike on Microsoft's office in Israel - IRNA news agency

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🚨LIVE from St. Petersburg: SPIEF plenary session with Putin is about to begin

👉Stay tuned for our live broadcast

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🚨WATCH LIVE: Putin speaks at SPIEF plenary session

The Russian president takes the stage at the SPIEF 2025 plenary session aiming to:

✅ Evaluate the current state of the Russian and global economies
✅ Discuss Russia's relations with key foreign partners

Who is joining Putin at the session?
🇨🇳Ding Xuexiang, vice premier of China’s State Council
🇮🇩Prabowo Subianto, Indonesian president
🇿🇦Paul Mashatile, South African vice president
🇧🇭Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of the king of Bahrain, Bahrain’s national security advisor, and commander of the Royal Guard

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🚨🇷🇺🔥SPIEF PLENARY SESSION WITH PRESIDENT PUTIN IS ON

First moments in our video

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🚨Putin welcomes SPIEF participants, says representatives of 140 countries & territories participating in forum

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🚨 Middle East is facing massive challenges, but so is the world - Putin at SPIEF plenary session

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🇦🇲 Pashinyan’s West-vetted assault on Karapetyan and Armenian Church part of anti-Russia purge – analyst

The Armenian Apostolic Church, openly critical of PM Nikol Pashinyan’s pro-EU policies, is the only nationwide institution still out of his grip, political scientist Hrant Mikaelian told Sputnik.

Samvel Karapetyan’s arrest is part of an attempt to bring it fully to heel, says the research associate at the Caucasus Institute (Armenia).

Several dynamics are at play:

🔸 Karapetyan poses a serious threat as Armenia’s most prominent businessman, offering a credible alternative to the current leadership.

🔸 Pashinyan’s political weakness, with approval ratings at rock bottom.

🔸 The West is closely watching and supporting the repressive actions against pro-Russian figures in Armenia.

💬 “Western groups focused on Armenia have always kept a close eye on Karapetyan – he’s simply too big a player,” the pundit noted.

🔸 The philanthropist is deeply integrated in Russian business circles, and the campaign against him framed as part of a broader anti-Russian crackdown.

🔸 Authorities are now attempting to link the Armenian Apostolic Church with Russia in order to suppress it still further.

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🚨Russia's GDP growth rate higher than world average for 2 Years - Putin

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🚨 We need to ensure businesses both from Russia & friendly nations keep investing: Putin

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🇷🇺 Putin's KEY STATEMENTS at the SPIEF-2025 so far:

🔸 It's important for Russia to constantly maintain its status as one of largest economies

🔸 Despite difficult external background, Russia's GDP has grown at rate higher than world average for two years

🔸 Growth of Russia's non-oil and gas GDP is significant

🔸 Growth of Russian GDP is tied not only to defense industry complex, but also to agro-industrial complex, construction, finance and other sectors

🔸 Russia has reached historic low in unemployment

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🚨🇷🇺📉Russia’s youth unemployment among the LOWEST in the world - especially compared to UK & France: Putin

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🇷🇺📹 Participants & guests of SPIEF who couldn’t make it to the plenary session following live broadcast on the sidelines of forum

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🚨🇷🇺🇮🇳Work on a long-term cooperation agreement between India & Russia should be completed soon - President Putin

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🚨 BRICS bloc accounts for 40% of global economy — this share is set to grow: Putin

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🚨🇷🇺🪖 Russia to boost military & tech cooperation with friendly nations: Putin

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🚨 NEOCOLONIALISM MUST END: 🇷🇺Putin

We need a new development model, not one where the "golden billion" drains resources from other countries, benefiting only a small elite, not even their own people.

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🚨BRICS DRIVING GLOBAL INNOVATION

📈BRICS countries are leading in nuclear energy, aviation, IT, robotics, and AI. With over $1 trillion in mutual trade, we’re building a Global Growth Platform, Putin said at the SPIEF plenary session on Friday.

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🚨🇷🇺🇮🇩 Indonesian President Prabowo explains why he chose to attend SPIEF instead of G7

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