FIP: Kremlin-Linked Network Ran Covert Campaign to Support Samvel Karapetyan and Strong Armenia

YEREVAN –  A Kremlin-linked network conducted a covert influence campaign aimed at boosting support for businessman Samvel Karapetyan and the Strong Armenia party ahead of Armenia’s 2026 parliamentary elections, according to the Fact Investigation Platform (FIP), citing a Meta report.

FIP reported that Meta released its report on coordinated inauthentic behavior and other harmful activity across Facebook and Instagram for the second half of 2026, which included findings related to Armenia’s parliamentary elections.

According to the report, the Russian nonprofit organization ANO Dialog, which has links to Russian state institutions, played a significant role in covert influence operations targeting foreign audiences, including Armenian-language users.

ANO Dialog was established by the Moscow city government in 2019. The organization has previously been linked by the U.S. Department of Justice to influence campaigns using methods associated with the Doppelganger network.

Those operations were reportedly carried out in cooperation with the Social Design Agency, or SDA, which FIP said operates under the effective supervision of Sergey Kiriyenko, deputy chief of staff of the Russian presidential administration.

FIP noted that during Armenia’s pre-election period it had obtained leaked documents allegedly showing that the Social Design Agency had conducted numerous disinformation and divisive information campaigns targeting Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora.

Campaign Supporting Samvel Karapetyan and Strong Armenia

Meta identified two covert influence operations attributed to ANO Dialog.

According to the report, one of the operations involved the creation of numerous accounts that violated Meta’s policies and coordinated their activity around Armenia’s June 2026 parliamentary elections.

Meta said it removed 25 Facebook accounts, 13 Facebook pages and 13 Instagram accounts associated with the network.

Approximately 9,600 accounts followed at least one of the Facebook pages, while about 10,400 accounts followed at least one of the Instagram accounts.

“The network targeted Armenia’s June 2026 parliamentary elections in an effort to increase support for the Strong Armenia party and Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan,” the report said.

FIP recalled that in the summer of 2025 it had identified dozens of fake social media accounts promoting Karapetyan.

The report also said that, in addition to directly targeting audiences in Armenia, the network sought to influence Armenian Diaspora communities in Germany, France and the United States.