Azerbaijan detained former Russian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan

On September 27, the Azerbaijani Border Service detained the ex-Minister of State of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), billionaire and former head of the Russian investment company Troika Dialogue, Ruben Vardanyan, while attempting to leave Karabakh for Armenia. He was taken to Baku and handed over to “the relevant government authorities to make an appropriate decision,” the press service of the Azerbaijani department reported. On the same day, in connection with the detention of the former Karabakh official, Armenia appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanding that Baku provide information about the place of detention and Vardanyan’s state of health, details of which were not reported as of the evening of September 27.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry is dealing with the issue of consular access to Vardanyan (there have been no diplomatic relations between Yerevan and Baku since they declared independence in 1991 and the start of the first Karabakh war). After Vardanyan’s detention, press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Ani Badalyan said that Yerevan would take all possible measures for the speedy release and return of the businessman to Armenia and counted on Moscow’s assistance in this matter.

Prior to this, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that since the ex-minister of state “has Russian citizenship, Russia must protect his rights.” But in response to a clarifying question about Vardanyan’s renunciation of Russian citizenship, the Kremlin representative replied that he was not sure and would not comment on this for sure, but if the businessman really renounced his Russian passport, then “that’s a different matter.”

Earlier, Vardanyan’s arrest was reported by his wife Veronica Zonabend on his Telegram channel. According to her, the businessman was “captured by the Azerbaijani authorities” on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border while trying to leave Karabakh along with other residents of the region. Later, TASS, citing sources close to Vardanyan, clarified that the businessman was detained while trying to leave Karabakh in the direction of the city of Goris in the Syunik region of Armenia.

Since the end of the 24-hour Azerbaijani “anti-terrorist operation” on September 20 in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the support of Russian peacekeepers, the evacuation of the local Armenian population to Armenia has continued. According to the Armenian government, by September 27, over 50,000 people had left Karabakh (out of 120,000, according to Karabakh authorities).

Vardanyan is an entrepreneur and investor, president of the company Vardanyan, Broitman and Partners and one of the founders of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. At the end of 2021, the businessman took 116th place in the ranking of the richest people in Russia with a fortune of $1 billion. According to Forbes Real Time, as of September 2023, his fortune reaches $1.2 billion.

Last September, Vardanyan renounced Russian citizenship and moved to Nagorno-Karabakh. Three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted his request. In November 2022, the then president of the unrecognized NKR, Arayik Harutyunyan, appointed him to the position of minister of state. But already in February 2023, Vardanyan resigned, explaining that he had disagreements with the Karabakh authorities. The businessman has repeatedly publicly criticized Baku for closing the Lachin corridor. In turn, Azerbaijan demanded that the Armenian authorities expel Vardanyan from Karabakh.

Theoretically, Vardanyan’s activities as Minister of State of the unrecognized NKR could lead to a criminal case under at least three articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan: “Forcible change of the constitutional system” (Article 278.2, from 15 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment), “Armed rebellion. Active participation in rebellion with the aim of violating territorial integrity” (Article 280, punishment from 12 to 20 years) and “Public call for violation of territorial integrity” (Article 281.1, up to 5 years).

As the Azerbaijani lawyer, director of the law office “Ruslan Veliyev and Partners” at the Bar Association of the Republic Ruslan Veliyev explained to Vedomosti, Vardanyan “occupied a government post in a self-proclaimed republic on the territory of Azerbaijan.” According to the lawyer, in addition to the civil service, the billionaire, as interpreted by local authorities, “took an active part in making military decisions” and during his tenure, violations of the truce established by the 2020 trilateral agreement were repeatedly recorded (signed by Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, it ended the second Karabakh war. – Vedomosti).

This resulted in the death of military personnel and civilians of Azerbaijan, as a result of which the Azerbaijani side initiated numerous criminal cases, the lawyer believes. In this regard, it is possible to impute the commission of crimes related to Art. 100 (“planning, preparing, initiating or waging a war of aggression”), 101 (“calling for the initiation of a war of aggression”), 103 (“genocide”), 104 (“incitement to genocide”) and 115 (“violation of the laws and customs of war “) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, he admits.

According to Rafik Ismailov, a member of the Russian-Azerbaijani Expert Council, if the Azerbaijani court finds Vardanyan guilty of criminal charges, the president may exercise the right of pardon. “There is also the option of a possible amnesty, which is announced by parliament for certain articles. An exchange for Azerbaijani military personnel imprisoned in Armenia cannot be ruled out. But it’s too early to talk about all this,” says Ismailov.

At the same time, Stanislav Pritchin, a senior researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at IMEMO RAS, believes that the situation with Vardanyan’s detention is somewhat more complicated. In addition to him, the Azerbaijanis, as reported with reference to sources from Bizim.Media and Panorama.am, on September 27 also detained the ex-secretary of the Security Council of the unrecognized NKR Vitaly Balasanyan. From the point of view of the settlement of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the importance of the detained persons, they will obviously become the subject of bargaining, the expert believes.

At the same time, for Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the detention of Vardanyan is not the most clear-cut topic. At the initial stage of his political career, a businessman in the Armenian political field was considered as a competitor to the current head of state, but here the question of “defending his own citizens” also arises, Pritchin concludes.