Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said that Armenia has requested assistance from the EU to fight “malign influence” in its upcoming elections similar to that given to Moldova.
Speaking on Monday from Brussels of the “intense diplomatic week” ahead, Kallas said: “Of course, Armenia has elections coming, and what can we do to help them? They have asked [for] similar help to fight malign influence, like we granted to Moldova.”
Marta Kos, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, claimed ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary elections on Sept. 28 this year that Russia was “intensifying its hybrid attacks on Moldova’s democracy and stability with blatant lies, a strategy of disinformation campaigns, illicit financing of political proxies, cyberattacks, energy blackmail and unprecedented vote buying.”
The EU responded with “targeted support to enhance cybersecurity and to combat illegal financial flows, as well as foreign information manipulation and interference,” she said.
The ballot in September was nonetheless overshadowed by allegations of interference, vote-buying, propaganda and disinformation on behalf of pro-Russian parties, but Moldovan President Maia Sandu’s pro-European party ultimately claimed victory.
It said that the Kremlin had thrown “everything dirty it had” at the country’s electoral process. Russia denies the claims.
On Dec. 2, the EU and Armenia signed a Strategic Agenda to deepen their political and economic partnership.
“It strengthens cooperation in the fields of security, crisis management, hybrid threats and cyber resilience,” according to a readout on the EU website.
Kallas told a joint news conference that day that “Russia and its proxies are already ramping up disinformation campaigns in Armenia ahead of the next year’s parliamentary election,” according to RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“We see the same networks that we saw deployed in Moldova that were active, so the playbook is identical. Our EU funding will also cover detection, analysis and response to foreign interference.”
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, who took part in the conference with Kallas, avoided any reference to Russia but said that there would be “new engagements to counter hybrid threats” facing Armenia.
In March 2025, Armenia’s parliament officially adopted a law on launching its accession process to the EU after a public petition to lawmakers.
The South Caucasus country, which has historically been a close Russia ally, has recently seen fraying ties with Moscow after Yerevan accused it of failing to intervene in a conflict with Azerbaijan.
However, Russian officials have warned Yerevan that it will see serious economic consequences if it joins the bloc. Russia accounts for some 35 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade, while the EU takes a much smaller share.