Azerbaijan arrests Russian-Armenian billionaire fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh

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Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan, who briefly held a senior political post in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh state, is trying to leave after Azerbaijan seized control of the region arrested in the divided enclave.

The former bank executive has ties to Russian oligarchs and politicians but moved to Karabakh last year and was arrested by Azerbaijani security services as he left the mountains with thousands of refugees.

“My husband . . . was arrested and detained by the Azerbaijani authorities at the border this morning as he tried to leave with thousands of Armenians fleeing the Azerbaijani occupation,” Veronika Zonabend said Wednesday.

Azerbaijani forces seized the region – an Armenian enclave recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan – last week in a brief but decisive battle, ending a decades-long conflict that had engulfed 120,000 Armenians. exodus of residents.

Prior to the conflict, Azerbaijan blocked the region’s only road to Armenia for 10 months, making it difficult for residents to obtain food and medicine. During this time, Vardanyan remained in the tiny enclave, serving as minister of state for the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh for four months until February.

Since last week’s 24-hour attack and the swift capitulation of Karabakh, Baku has been moving to annex the region, which it first lost to Armenia in a war in the early 1990s, and officials have offered local residents Azerbaijani citizenship.

In the past four days, more than 50,000 people have fled to Armenia through border checkpoints set up by Azerbaijan during the blockade. Most left with ease, but concerns remain widespread that border forces are seeking and potentially detaining members of Karabakh’s elite.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last week described Karabakh elites as a “criminal junta” and said those who committed war crimes would “be brought to justice”.he explain: “Armenian nationalists, war criminals and so-called leaders of Armenia and Karabakh have taken (locals) hostage and poisoned their brains.”

Since last week’s surrender, the self-proclaimed government of Nagorno-Karabakh no longer exists as an entity and its ministry spokesman said most of its leaders remain in the enclave.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to defend Vardanyan’s rights if he remained a Russian citizen, but added that if the oligarch abandoned him Russian passport, that would be “another matter.”

Vardanyan’s spokesman confirmed that the businessman was an Armenian citizen, but not a Russian citizen. Vardanyan gave up his Russian passport and arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh shortly before the blockade began last year. In November, he was appointed First Minister.

Vardanyan quickly angered Azerbaijan, which called him a “foreign element” and suspected him of being a secret emissary of Russia, the traditional power broker in the Caucasus.

However, the billionaire’s move to Nagorno-Karabakh is part of a plan to increase his political influence in Armenia, according to three people familiar with the matter.

In the first decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia was largely ruled by Karabakh tribesmen until current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power in the 2018 Velvet Revolution.

Within months of Vardanyan’s appointment as state minister, Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto president fired him — an attempt by the billionaire to stage a coup, according to two people familiar with the matter The result of a failed attempt to seize power. Vardanyan remains trapped in the enclave as food and medicine become increasingly scarce.

“During the 10-month blockade, Ruben stood with the people of Artsakh and fought with them for survival. I ask you to pray for me,” his wife said.

A spokesman for the ministry said there had been no contact with Vardanyan since Tuesday.

Azerbaijan’s border service said Vardanyan “was detained at the Lachin exit of the state border.”

“He was taken to Baku and handed over to the relevant national authorities,” the agency added.

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