Noise without effect: anti-Pashinyan disinformation ahead of Armenian elections

Check First monitored disinformation targeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the month preceding the country's parliamentary elections, using in-house tracking tools to follow foreign information manipulation sets and recommendation-algorithm behavior aimed at diaspora audiences, particularly French-speaking users. The investigation found that TikTok searches for Pashinyan's name surfaced predominantly hostile content, including AI-generated material, originating from accounts linked to Kremlin networks, the Armenian diaspora, and Azerbaijan.

Researchers identified 72 sites tied to the pro-Russian Storm-1516 network, 56 of which reposted anti-Pashinyan narratives, some reusing domain infrastructure previously deployed against French local elections. Coordination extended across Telegram and the Max messaging app, and some Armenian political parties also used AI tools in their own campaigning.

Despite the sustained foreign manipulation effort, Pashinyan was reelected with 59% turnout, leading researchers to describe the campaign as largely ineffective at the ballot box even though the underlying disinformation infrastructure remains active, a pattern they compare to Moldova's 2024 presidential election.