"Tashir itself"

Why billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who was repeatedly associated with the Kremlin, was arrested in Armenia and threatened to nationalize his assets

In Yerevan, the court arrested a billionaire, the owner of the Tashir group of companies Samvel Karapetyan (a fortune - $ 3.2 billion, 44 place in the list of Russian billionaires for Forbes) in the case of public calls to seize power in the country. The reason was his criticism of Nikola Pashinyan against the backdrop of confrontation with the Catholicos Garein II and the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC).

Attempts to detain 59-year-old Karapetyan resulted in clashes with the security forces at his house, during which about 50 people were detained. What is hidden behind the criminal case of a billionaire, how he got rich and what awaits him now-in the material of the New-Europe.

"We will participate in this in our own way"

On the afternoon of June 17, a billionaire Samvel Karapetyan gave a short interview against the backdrop of the Echmiadzinsky Cathedral. The owner of the Tashir group of companies, who became one of the sponsors of the restoration of the main temple in Armenia, made a veiled criticism of the country's authorities.

“A small group of people, forgetting the thousand -year history of Armenia and the Church, arranged attacks on our people and AAC. Since I have always been next to the Armenian church and the people, then I will take a direct part ... If the politicians do not achieve success, then we will participate in all this in our own way ”,

- The businessman said in a conversation with News.am.

Karapetyan did not directly call the addresses of the application, but they are obvious. In the last month, the authorities of Armenia, led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, are conducting an information campaign against Catholicos Garegin II and famous bishops of the church. The vocabulary of the head of the Cabinet on Facebook times is more likely to resemble yard jargon. So, Pashinyan urged an unnamed bishop to stop criticizing him and "go to fuck his uncle's wife."

The obscene vocabulary in the prime minister’s expressions also dominated in a response to an interview with Karapetyan. He, also not mentioning the name of the businessman, called him and priests "prostitutes." “He says:“ We intervene in our own way. ” So, now I will intervene in my own way, a scoundrel, ”Pashinyan wrote in another post. In addition, he stated that Karapetyan is not in the "village of Nizhny TAPR in the Kaluga region, but in the Republic of Armenia."

Pashinyan's performances against the church take place against the backdrop of the fall of the rating of his party and, on the eve of the visit of June 20 to Ankara, to meet with Turkey President Recep Erdogan. According to May surveys of the research organization Gallup International, only 11.8% of respondents are gathering to vote for the ruling party "Civil Treaty". At the same time, the ratings of opposition parties are now even lower.

"Masks-shows" and the dismissal of the head of the SNB

Soon on June 17, the first group of security forces appeared at the Karapetyan mansion in the prestigious area of ​​Yerevan. The media first reported the detention of a businessman, but later his brother, a former deputy of the National Assembly, Karen Karapetyan, said that a clash between the police and supporters of the businessman had occurred near the house. About 50 people were roughly detained.

Karapetyan remained at home until late at night, after which he left his own from there and, together with the deputy chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, went to the department. In the morning, it became known that Pashinyan fired the head of the SNB (analogue of the FSB) Armen Abazyan. According to the newspaper Graparak, the reason was the refusal to arrest Karapetyan.

“Abazyan actually refused to comply with Pashinyan’s order to arrange“ masks-shows ”in the courtyard of the Karapetyan house and bring a famous businessman to the street. Abazyan was dismissed precisely that night when the SNB did not fulfill the order ",

- The publication wrote.

When asked whether Abazyan refused to fulfill any assignment, the Prime Minister replied that the director of the SNB “could not refuse to fulfill any of my instructions” and advised the ex-siblical to relax.

A researcher at the Caucasus Institute Grant Mikaelyan believes that the detention fits into Pashinyan’s election strategy (the parliamentary elections will be held in June 2026), which strives for the “maximum stripping of the opposition”, and in Karapetyan sees the Armenian Bijinishvili.

“From the point of view of Pashinyan, Karapetyan looks like the founder of the Georgian Dream Bidzin Ivanishvili: he also put together a fortune in Russia and supports the opposition. Accordingly, such a person should not be allowed before the election, ”his“ Independent Gazeta ”quotes him.

Mediaxpert Karen Vrtanesyan said that the interests of both Pashinyan and President Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev coincided with the businessman's issue.

“In Moscow, Samvel Karapetyan in a number of spheres recovers with a native of Azerbaijan Guide Nisanov, who is one of the main service interests of Aliyev in Russia. Having hit Karapetyan, Nikol provides a great service to Aliyev. ”

"Kaluga is not Tashir!"

Samvel Karapetyan - a native of the village of Kalinino, Lori region of Armenia. After the country signing the declaration of independence in 1990, he ensured that the city was returned to the historical name Tashir, and then turn this name into a brand for an entire empire. In Armenia, even the businessman himself is better known by the name “Tashir itself”.

Having graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Yerevan at the height of perestroika, he first reorganized the enamel dishes to the Zenit cooperative, in 1992 moved to Lipetsk to the NLMK metallurgists, and in 1997 he bought the Kalugalgalavsnab enterprise, engaged in the wholesale supplies of building materials for the factories of the Kaluga region.

An ordinary regional business, but one detail: since the time of Kalugalavsnab, Gazpromhas become an important counterparty of Karapetyan.

It was the purchase of this logistics and trading Kaluga hub that gave Karapetyan the starting infrastructure and the client network, on the basis of which the development group Tashir grew in two years. In the early 2000s, there were so many Tashira objects in Kaluga that this began to annoy many citizens. "Kaluga is not Tashir!" - With such posters, the townspeople under the windows of the head of the city were rallyed in 2004.

State budget, courts and electric "switch"

The main financial flows of the Tashir group of companies for many years were Russian construction rooms and Armenian communal tariffs. Today, both key sources of income were under pressure. At first, the Moscow “daughter” “Ecostroy” demanded 779.9 million rubles with VDNH under a closed contract for landscaping: the lawsuit was filed on December 28, 2024, adopted to production, but the motives were classified. The situation itself illustrates the approach that is characteristic of Tashira: when the project is disrupted, the company tries to compensate for the costs through arbitration, receiving the undertaken payments from state or air -state counterparties.

In parallel in Armenia, Karapetyan was at risk of a key asset - CJSC Electric Networks of Armenia, bought from Inter RAO in 2015. Esa tariffs are tied to the price of Russian gas. Now, after the June searches with the businessman, Nikol Pashinyan announced that "the time has come to nationalize Es."

Russian pro -government media called these actions "political reprisal."

The dispute of the authorities and the oligarch turns from a criminal case about the “calls to seize power” into bargaining for an asset, without which Armenia can literally be left without light, and Moscow - without another lever of influence in the South Caucasus.

Mass and indicative checks are also held in other projects belonging to Karapetyan in Armenia. One of the targets was the Tashir pizzeria: more than ten network restaurants in Yerevan were closed on June 18-19 due to violations of the law. On the assets of Karapetyan, this is unlikely to seriously hit, but the authorities in Armenia clearly demonstrate that he can wait for those who disagree with its actions.

The authors of the Economy of Armenia telegram channel suggest that the possible nationalization of the Es can lead to negative consequences for the country: they will create risks for investment, undermine legal predictability and cause damage to the international arena.

“Internal investors lose confidence: if“ you can take it from Karapetyan, ”then you can also at the other <...> Armenia risks encountering a tough reaction of donors and losing support in energy modernization projects. Instead of solving problems - the state can get a burdensome asset with high debt and social obligations, ”the channel writes.

Karapetyan takes 44th place in the ranking of the richest Russians according to Forbes with a fortune of $ 3.2 billion (he added $ 300 million per year). The total revenue of the Tashir Group of Companies in 2024 exceeded 260 billion rubles.

"Kremlin report" and the court against France

Samvel Karapetyan has repeatedly accused of close ties with the Russian authorities. In 2018, his name appeared in the “ Kremlin report ” of the US Treasury, who contained a list of persons who, in the opinion of Washington, communications with President Vladimir Putin.

The document contained 210 names - these are 114 high -ranking officials and heads of state -owned companies, as well as 96 businessmen.

In early June 2025, Karapetyan initiated an arbitration against France in the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID; is part of the World Bank group), Kommersant found out . The publication suggests that the lawsuit concerns the arrested villa of an entrepreneur at the Cote d'Azur worth € 120 million. The French prosecutor's office considered that the actual beneficiary of the asset is the subsidiary of Gazprom - Gazprom Neft.

“At the beginning of 2024, the French court froze the ownership of Samvel Karapetyan on the villa Irina Maria and 3 hectares of land in Rockbrun-Cap-Martin on the Cote d'Azur. During a preliminary investigation in the case of money laundering, the National Court of Court of Crime Crime discovered numerous evidence that the villa was never actually from Gazprom Neft control, ”Kommersant writes.

“Frusted as immortal”: an arrest reaction in Russia

In Russia, information on the persecution of Karapetyan was met negatively. The State Duma deputy from the "new people" Rosa Chemeris called the case "the black label of Pashinyan."

“Searches in the house of a famous businessman and philanthropist are a kind of“ black label ”from him from Pashinyan, a panicky -afraid of political competition. Which, however, forgot how he once once changed his endless promises of a new life for Armenia his predecessor, Serge Sargsyan . He also forgot that people very quickly get tired of empty words and promises of power, ”she said.

The propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, commenting on searches at Karapetyan, called on the Armenians “remember who they are” and prevent the deprivation of the country of her spiritual support - the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He recalled that Karapetyan created thousands of jobs and repeatedly helped Armenia in crisis moments, so he considers the pressure on the businessman unreasonable.

The editor -in -chief of RT Margarita Simonyan in the context of the detention called the Prime Minister of Armenia the Turkish word "Efendi" (in the Ottoman Empire "Mr." or "Sir"). “He fanned like an immortal. Look, as if you yourself can’t tolerate with anything very unpleasant in your mouth. ”

The speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova with sarcasm quoted Pashinyan’s call to the “unanimous and unconditional surrender” to the previous authorities in 2018.

“Now we hear how in Yerevan a Russian businessman, from the words of his lawyer, seemed to be accused of some calls for a change of power. I just quote the head of state of Armenia, ”she said.

The Governor of the Kaluga Region Vladislav Shapsha to the PMEF also responded to the word about "the village of Nizhny TAPR".

“There are many villages in the Kaluga region <...> and in general, the volume of industrial production of the Kaluga region today is almost half as much as the volume of industrial production of Armenia.”

Military trace and battalion "Arbat"

For the first time, Samvel Karapetyan appeared next to the Arbat Armenian battalion in November 2022, when the GUR and the Ukrainian media mentioned the billionaire as the “wallet” of a new assault part dotted from prisoners in the occupied Donbass.

In July 2023, in the Moscow Cathedral of the AAC, the Arbat blessing ceremony was held before being sent to the front. By that time, the Arbat was already listed as a separate battalion of the Pozhnashka Interbrigade, which includes about five hundred fighters: Kostyak - Armenians from Russia, Armenia and Abkhazia, reinforced by the group of former Wagnerians. Armen Sargsyan (Armen Gorlovsky) was seen at the ceremony, on which in February 2025 an attempt was made in the Moscow LCD Sails. Sargsyan was seriously injured and died in the hospital. The Investigative Committee announced the version of the “custom -made murder” on the basis of “financial and interethnic conflicts”.

In September 2024, the Armenian National Security Service announced the prevention of attempts by an armed coup in the country. The suspect was promised a monthly salary of 220 thousand rubles and military training on a certain base of the Arbat battalion. The mercenaries were taken to Rostov-on-Don and checked for ideological fidelity, including through the polygraph, the Armenian SK reports. It was assumed that after that they would return to Armenia and begin an armed coup.

After recent searches, Karapetyan has not a word about the financing of PMCs in Armenia SK Armenia. Law enforcement officers of Russia and Armenia publicly do not affect the theme of Arbat, and the representative of Tashira still refers to the presumption of innocence. Therefore, the version of the involvement of the businessman in the Arbat battalion is kept exclusively on Ukrainian intelligence data.

***

On the evening of June 18, the court in Yerevan imprisoned Karapetyan for two months. After the decision, the lawyer read out the businessman’s appeal to the supporters on the street.

“I have experienced many difficult moments in life. I cannot force me to violate my principles with illegal arrest and fabricated business <...> our victory is not an alternative, ”the billionaire’s word defended.

On the eve of Pashinyan, they directly asked if the statements of Karapetyan are part of the hybrid war of the Russian Federation against the Government of Armenia. In response, he said about “close working relations” and “mutual trust” with Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Mishustin.

“I can’t believe that such a campaign against Armenia could be undertaken by the Kremlin or the Russian government, but I do not exclude and there is a high probability that in Russia there are certain circles that are behind these hybrid actions and war”,

He reacted.

In recent days, Armenia is again actively discussing the famous performance of Nikola Pashinyan in the capital of Nagorno -Karabakh Stepanakert in 2019. Then he stated that “Artsakh is Armenia and Point,” as well as thank Karapetyan and Ruben Vardanyan for multimillion -dollar investments in Armenia and the NKR. A few years later, the prime minister recognized Karabakh part of Azerbaijan, Vardanyan is now being judged in Baku, and Karapetyan in Yerevan.