By Hovhannes Nazaretyan
This is part of the weekly series by #CivilNetCheck – an initiative that will look at the week’s fake news and dubious claims – circulating in Armenia (and about Armenia).
Pashinyan wrong on gas-related statistics
Talking about the increase in natural gas prices for end-customers at a cabinet meeting earlier this month, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made several dubious claims.
One of those claims was that the number of low-income households who will be paying for gas at subsidized prices is around 100,000. #CivilNetCheck has found that their number is significantly lower, at almost 67,000 or around 9% of all end-customers. The figures were provided to CivilNet by Gazprom-Armenia. According to figures obtained by CivilNet from the Public Services Regulatory Commission, these households consume just 1.6% of Armenia’s total gas consumption and 4.5% of household consumption.
No proof of biolabs developing weapons in Ukraine—or Armenia
Since its invasion of Ukraine last month, Russian officials and state-affiliated media have pushed the claim that US-funded biolabs in Ukraine are allegedly developing biological weapons. International fact-checkers have widely debunked this theory.
Two weeks ago, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, claimed in a briefing that the US had been involved in “military-biological activities” in other post-Soviet countries as well. Some Armenian outlets, namely Channel 5TV, linked this Russian narrative to a years-old story, pushed by some pro-Russian activists and media, that US-funded biolabs in Armenia are potentially dangerous.
#CivilNetCheck found that these biolabs operate under the jurisdiction of Armenia’s Health and Agriculture Ministries (the latter has been merged with the Economy Ministry). These labs were reopened in 2016 and received almost $14 million from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) for upgrades. The labs are engaged in tracking and securing dangerous pathogens. Similar labs have been opened in several provinces of Armenia, also funded by the DTRA’s Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) with Armenia.
Both the US Embassy in Yerevan and the Health Ministry have stated that these labs are not engaged in development of bioweapons. In a September 2018 interview with a Russian newspaper, Pashinyan stated that “on [his] personal instructions, Russian specialists were admitted to these laboratories.” Pashinyan added that these labs are “completely under the control of the Armenian authorities” and that upon their visit, Russian specialists “made sure that there is nothing terrible in these laboratories.”
Furthermore, according to Armenia’s Health Ministry, these labs had received equipment and furniture from Russia.