Russia's SVR accuses EU of pushing Russian Orthodox Church out of Armenia

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed that the European Union has conditioned Armenia's European integration on severing its centuries-old religious ties with Moscow. The SVR alleges that the EU is aggressively working to expel the Russian Orthodox Church from Armenia.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has publicly accused the European Union of pressuring Armenia to sever its long-standing religious connections with Moscow as a precondition for deeper European integration. According to the SVR, Brussels has demanded what it describes as a "complete rupture of centuries-old religious and spiritual ties" between Armenia and Russia.

The Russian intelligence agency claims the EU has been "aggressively pushing" to remove the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) from Armenia, framing it as part of a broader geopolitical effort to pull the South Caucasus nation away from Russia's sphere of influence. Armenia has in recent years significantly shifted its foreign policy orientation toward the West, reducing its participation in Russian-led structures.

The SVR's statement comes amid a period of notable cooling in Armenian-Russian relations. Yerevan has frozen its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), scaled back military cooperation with Moscow, and actively pursued closer ties with the EU and the United States following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and its 2023 aftermath.

The European Union has not issued an immediate response to the SVR's allegations. Analysts note that such statements from Russian intelligence services often serve a dual purpose: domestic messaging and an attempt to influence public opinion in the targeted country. Armenia's Armenian Apostolic Church is the dominant religious institution in the country and is entirely separate from the Russian Orthodox Church, which has a smaller but historically significant presence there.

The accusations reflect the broader information war accompanying Armenia's gradual geopolitical pivot. Russia has increasingly framed Western engagement with post-Soviet states as an attack on traditional values and Orthodox Christian civilization, a narrative the SVR appears to be extending to its portrayal of EU-Armenia relations.