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 Tuesday, September 23 2025 13:00
Naira Badalian

Former ANIF Director recalled that `Nikol Pashinyan shattered our  hopes as soon as he was placed on international wanted list -  premier 

Former ANIF Director recalled that `Nikol Pashinyan shattered our  hopes as soon as he was placed on international wanted list -  premier 

ArmInfo.Former Director of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF) CJSC, David Papazyan, recalled that Nikol Pashinyan "shattered our hopes" as soon as he was placed on the international wanted list. Pashinyan stated this on  September 23 during a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Fourth  Armenian Democracy Forum.

"It's good that he didn't think to make such a statement four months  earlier, so that international organizations would recognize him as a  political prisoner one after another," Pashinyan said. 

As the Prime Minister pointed out, it is unfair to use the  authorities' fight against corruption against those same authorities.  He reiterated that there has been no systemic corruption in Armenia  since 2018.

"If there were systemic corruption, then I would have my share of all  these corrupt deals you know about." Only I know whether I have a  stake or not, and I tell you, there has never been and never will be  systemic corruption in the Republic of Armenia. However, isolated  instances of corruption have been and will be in many countries," he  concluded.

As a reminder, on September 22, David Papazyan accused Nikol  Pashinyan on social media of failing ANIF programs. "Nikol Pashinyan  is trying to make us scapegoats for his and his government's shameful  mistakes and failures, which have thwarted several projects created  by the ANIF founding team. Nikol Pashinyan, who has unacceptably  abused the trust of many of us, faces another failure. It will not be  possible to blame us for his and his government's shameful mistakes  and shortcomings, which have thwarted the implementation of several  programs developed by the ANIF founding team," Papazyan wrote. 

Meanwhile, on August 15, it was announced that the RA Prosecutor  General's Office had opened a criminal case against former ANIF CJSC  Director David Papazyan, former Anti-Crisis Investment Fund  "Entrepreneur+State" CJSC Director Bella Manukyan, and Karine  Andreasyan, CJSC Director. A criminal case has been opened against  David Papazyan under three articles of the Criminal Code of the  Republic of Armenia:  document forgery (Article 457), money  laundering on an especially large scale (Article 296, Part 3, Clauses  2 and 3), and abuse of office in the private sector (Article 277,  Part 2, Clause 2). In September, the RA Investigative Committee  announced that Papazyan would be placed on an international wanted  list.

Papazyan headed ANIF from 2019 to 2024. The fund was established in  2019, financed from the state budget, and intended to invest in  business projects significant to the country. Experts, including  those from abroad, were brought in to manage it. However, some of the  funds were discovered to have been funneled to dubious companies  registered offshore. On May 23, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers  decided to dissolve the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF).

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