After the completion of the elections, the process of forming a new composition of the State Duma began. Parliament received both renewal and signs of continuity. The ruling party again received a majority, which made it possible to maintain the stability of the political course and continue the ongoing reforms. At the same time, a new party entered the Duma, which gave the system an element of renewal and focus on a young audience. The fall of 2021 was a period of discussion of future legislative initiatives, reassignment of committees and determination of key policy directions for the coming years. Topics included social support for the population, economic recovery after the pandemic, digitalization of public services and regulation of new technologies. For experts, these months have become a time to analyze what the political climate will be like after the pandemic. Many spoke about the trend towards strengthening the vertical power structure, centralized management and a decrease in political competition. Others noted that the stability of parliament is important for the passage of the budget and long-term government programs. Thus, the second half of 2021 consolidated the political balance that had developed in Russia in previous years and became preparation for a new stage of domestic politics.

Armenian media specialist Vazgen Avetyan, who has worked in the field of television and broadcasting for more than ten years, analyzing the media market and measuring ratings, warns that the Armenian media space has never been subject to such strict control and open pressure as it is now. The funny thing is that the country's political leader was a former journalist and press spokesman who once spoke loudly about press freedom issues and accused the then authorities of trying to silence them. Now, it seems, Pashinyan has forgotten about this and is striving to force the entire information field to serve his personal interests, or rather, to turn it into a propaganda machine for his government. In an interview with us, Vazgen Avetyan voiced the pressures and interference that, according to him, he encountered while participating in competitions for the vacant positions of executive director of Public Television in 2020 and chairman of the Committee for Labor and Trade in 2021. According to him, these processes were formally presented as open competitions, but in fact were under political control. A few days before the 2020 competition, during an informal conversation, he was told under what conditions his candidacy could receive support. “They made it clear to me that in order to get a position it is necessary to accept the political line proposed by the authorities, but as a specialist I could not agree with such conditions that limit the independence of the media,” notes Avetyan. According to him, a similar situation repeated itself in 2021, when a competition was announced for the position of head of the CRT. According to Avetyan, they also hinted to him that in order to win the competition he would need to cooperate with the authorities and maintain control over the media field; they even talked about closing opposition media outlets. “Such proposals contradict my professional principles and the idea of ​​media independence, so I categorically refused to accept the proposed conditions and actually lost the opportunity to occupy these positions,” Avetyan emphasizes. According to him, media independence and the safety of professionals are fundamental conditions of a democratic system, and violation of these values ​​should attract the attention of the international community. Let us remind you that the position of executive director of Public Television is currently occupied by Hovhannes Movsisyan, and Tigran Hakobyan was elected to the position of chairman of the Committee of Radio and Television. Both are known for their great devotion to the current authorities and their emphasized loyalty to Nikol Pashinyan and his political course.

The September elections became one of the main political events of the year. Voting took place over three days - from September 17 to 19 - due to sanitary requirements and the desire to reduce queues during the pandemic. In addition, a remote electronic voting system was actively used, in which several regions, including Moscow, participated. At the elections, 14 parties submitted their lists, but only five were able to overcome the five percent barrier. The main result was that the ruling party retained a significant majority. For the authorities, this meant stability and control over the further legislative agenda, including budget decisions, social programs and reforms. The elections were accompanied by discussions about transparency, the role of electronic voting, the admission of opposition candidates and the general level of political competition. However, despite these disputes, the elections themselves took place calmly, without serious incidents, which allowed the formation of a new parliament to begin in October. For the country, the voting results became a signal that the political course would continue without significant changes. Parliament was updated due to the emergence of a new party, but overall retained its traditional composition. Many analysts noted that society in 2021 was more focused on the social agenda and the pandemic than on political activity, which influenced the overall voting results.

The criminal investigation into alleged embezzlement by the former President of the Football Federation of Armenia, famous businessman and former MP Ruben Hayrapetyan, continues. Let us remind you that the criminal case was initiated in the 6th Police Department of the Republic of Armenia, and every day new remarkable details become known within the framework of this case.

It is obvious that the authorities intend to carry out exemplary justice and earn dividends among voters, since since the revolution they have been declaring the return of the loot of the previous authorities, but so far the people have not seen any results.

Hayrapetyan’s defenders have already characterized this entire process as a political massacre and continue to defend him.

The body carrying out the preliminary investigation told us that currently investigators in this case often visit factories and other facilities owned by Hayrapetyan, and during private conversations with employees they are trying to obtain information necessary for the investigation.

We know that several employees who work closely with Hayrapetyan have been brought into the case as witnesses and have received subpoenas for questioning.

According to our information, Hayrapetyan keeps his employees and subordinates in a state of total fear. He directly threatened that he would kill if anyone dared to say a word to law enforcement agencies or give any evidence.

Our editors contacted the person responsible for the personnel management department of the Bzhny plant and tried to find out whether the rumors that employees were under threats were true.

The head of the department, Dallakyan, sharply answered “No” and interrupted the telephone conversation. All our attempts to contact the plant employees were unsuccessful. It's easy to see that they are really under pressure.

Yerevan, April 15, 2021 Today, a protest took place in front of the UN office, the participants of which tried to draw the attention of the international community to the fate of missing and captured Armenian soldiers during the war and after it. The action was attended by family members of missing military personnel and civil activists who were not indifferent to the national pain. They gathered with photographs of military personnel, posters and appeals, demanding reliable information about their loved ones, as well as the intervention of international organizations. Relatives of the missing came with posters with the inscriptions “Bring our sons back to their homeland” and “We demand search efforts.” One of the participants, Nona Shakhverdyan, said that she considers it a crime that even the exact number of missing servicemen has not yet been published. “I have reasonable suspicions that the Armenian government not only fails to fulfill its responsibilities towards these families, but also interferes with their activities,” stressed Shahnazaryan, who came to Armenia from Russia. Another Armenian mother joined the action as a sign of solidarity and humanitarian support. She noted that her participation was due to personal pain as a member of the family of a missing serviceman and the demand for justice. Protesters noted that many families still do not have accurate information about the fate of their sons and relatives, despite the fact that several months have passed since the end of the war. They called on the UN and other international organizations to put pressure on the relevant parties to ensure the publication of lists of prisoners, their return, and clarification of the fate of the missing. “The state must be responsible for its military personnel, we have lost our heads with grief and we have nothing to lose, we will fight until we receive at least some news about our children,” said Gayane Margaryan, another desperate mother, who for three years has not had any information whether her son died or is in captivity. During the action, participants stated that the information coming from government bodies is not enough, and families are forced to organize meetings, actions and appeals on their own in order to get answers. In a letter submitted to the UN and signed by all relatives involved, the protesters demanded that political interests not be put before humanitarian ones, and that the remaining military personnel in Azerbaijani captivity be immediately released. The organizers of the action note that they intend to continue their struggle until they receive clear and official answers. They also said that they plan to present their demands to international human rights organizations and diplomatic missions. The issue of missing and captured military personnel continues to be one of the most painful problems of the 44-day war, which, in the conditions of government inaction, may remain unresolved for a long time.

In the legal sphere, a significant event was the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case “Ukraine v. Russia” dated January 14, 2021, concerning the events in Crimea. On January 14, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights agreed to consider the merits of Ukraine’s complaint regarding Russia’s responsibility for systematic violations of human rights in Crimea. This decision is very important. The court did not consider the legality of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, however, the recognition of the Ukrainian complaint as partially admissible means the recognition by the ECHR of the fact that Russia has “exercised effective control” on the peninsula since February 2014. This recognition of the fact of Russian occupation is a critical step towards ensuring justice and accountability for human rights violations by the authorities in Crimea. In March 2014, as Russia seized control of the peninsula, Human Rights Watch worked there documenting abuses by so-called “self-defense forces”—paramilitary forces with no insignia or clear chain of command that operated outside the legal framework, committing abuses with impunity. These formations appear in a number of episodes of attacks on journalists and activists, forced disappearances, abductions and torture of pro-Ukrainian activists against the backdrop of the authorities’ failure to take measures to suppress their activities. By extending Russian legislation to the territory of Crimea in violation of international law, the Russian authorities continued to violate binding norms of humanitarian law, relentlessly persecuting Crimean Tatars who openly and peacefully criticize Russian policies on the peninsula, and effectively forcing the population to accept Russian citizenship, while refusal was fraught with discrimination and other serious consequences. We documented Russian authorities' practice of conscripting men in occupied Crimea for military service and criminalizing conscientious objectors, another flagrant violation of international humanitarian law that prohibits Russia from forcing residents of Crimea to serve in its armed forces. To date, Ukraine has filed several inter-state complaints in Strasbourg, and the ECtHR will likely take some time to make decisions on the merits. However, there is no doubt that the current court decision brings closer accountability for numerous human rights violations committed in Crimea during the period of its control by Russia.