The Independent Observer initiative has filed a report with Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office regarding alleged pressure on Armenian businesspeople in Russia, mission representative Daniel Ioannisyan said, according to Factor.am .

The complaint was submitted under Article 233 of the Criminal Code, which concerns coercion to make donations in favor of a political party.

“It is prohibited to force people to make donations to parties. And the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is doing this. We had this information for more than a month and were trying to obtain evidence, but since the Foreign Intelligence Service issued a statement, we decided to submit the report,” Ioannisyan said.

He noted that the organization collects information from several sources.

“The pressure is being exerted by the FSB. During these elections, we are paying attention not only to processes in Armenia but also to those in Russia and Georgia that are connected to Armenia’s elections. We are not talking about just one person,” Ioannisyan said.

He added that the group also has information about attempts to bring voters from both Russia and Georgia.

According to him, traces of Russian state structures are visible in these processes as well. At the same time, he said no involvement of Georgian state bodies has been observed.

“We do not see the same trace in Georgia, meaning Georgian state bodies are not involved in that ‘vote mobilization.’ In Russia, it exists — people are being organized and brought here, and we have also seen buses being mobilized in Armenia to receive those voters,” he said.

Ioannisyan stressed that Armenia has limited mechanisms to remove political forces that use such methods from the electoral process, and that combating them mainly requires legal tools.

On March 10, Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service stated that it had received intelligence indicating that individuals presenting themselves as representatives of foreign special services had exerted pressure on Armenian nationals and citizens conducting business in another country.

According to that information, they were urged to support certain political forces planning to participate in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections by providing financial and organizational assistance.