Azerbaijan is lobbying against Ruben Vardanyan abroad - POLITICO

ArmInfo. "Eyebrows were raised after POLITICO - and no doubt other media outlets - last week received an email from a PR firm about what it described as Russian influence operations in Europe. While this sounded very juicy, it focused exclusively on one man, my colleague Gabriel Gavin spotted: Russian-Armenian oligarch  Ruben Vardanyan," Elisa Braun writes in an article titled "The spies are coming"

The article reads, in part:

Vested interests: Vardanyan is currently behind bars in Azerbaijan  after the country launched an offensive to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh,  sparking the mass exodus of its Armenian residents. While the  56-year-old made his money in Moscow and has been sanctioned by  Ukraine for his involvement in Russian infrastructure businesses, he  gave up his Russian citizenship in order to go into politics and  become the Karabakh Armenian prime minister. There has been  speculation he maintained ties with the Kremlin, but Russian  peacekeepers stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh ultimately left Vardanyan  and other local leaders to be detained by the Azerbaijanis.

Friends in high places in the West: Former Unilever boss Paul Polman  and pharmaceutical company Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan are among  those actively campaigning for Vardanyan's release. His office also  claims he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - even if the  chances of him winning the coveted prize with his chequered past are  virtually zero.

A Russian agent? Nevertheless, Azerbaijan is furious about the  nomination, as per several reports from local outlets. That's where  the PR campaign comes in, as it claimed that MEPs had backed a motion  calling on the Nobel Prize Committee to recognize Vardanyan as a  Russian agent and rule him out as a potential recipient of the award.

So what? Well, according to a press release sent out by a PR company  working on behalf of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, Ukraine,  MEPs Viola von Cramon-Taubadel and Karen Melchior supported calls for  Vardanyan to be blacklisted from the prestigious prize. There's only  one problem: the pair of lawmakers told POLITICO they had done no  such thing, suggesting their words had been deliberately taken out of  context to support Azerbaijan's talking points.

Flat-out denial: "I took part in this event on the basis it was about  Russian disinformation," said von Cramon-Taubadel, a German MEP.  "It's shameful it seems to be being used for Azerbaijani  disinformation.  I did not support any joint declaration, and I  wouldn't have participated if it had any links to the Azerbaijani  embassy." Denmark's Melchior also told POLITICO she hadn't signed up  to the statement, nor would she.

We just make the sandwiches: A spokesperson for the Brussels Press  Club denied it had any involvement in lending credibility to such a  lobbying event. "Anyone can book our venue, like any hotel in  Brussels, and we have hundreds of events a year," said a staffer who  answered the phone when POLITICO put in a query. "But we aren't the  organizers of these events, we just host them."

So what is the Center for Analysis and Strategies, Ukraine? Well,  it's not entirely clear. The organization doesn't seem to have a  functioning website in English or Ukrainian, has 88 likes on its  Facebook page, and four out of the only five references to the think  tank on Google are pro-Azerbaijani articles written by its founder,  Ihor Chalenko.

Country of concern: Azerbaijan is already facing criticism over its  championing of fossil fuels and its network of influence in the West  - but outwardly misrepresenting MEPs' stances would mark a new rift  between the country and the Parliament. POLITICO has reached out to  the country's ambassador to the EU, Vaqif Sadiqov.