Businessman Ruben Vardanyan, best known for establishing the UWC Dilijan College, the Idea Foundation, and the Armenia 2020 project, says he’s renounced his Russian citizenship and plans to move to Artsakh to create a social movement to save what remains in Armenian hands following the 2020 Artsakh war.

Vardanyan, in a video released today from Artsakh, called on Azerbaijan to stop its threats against Artsakh and thanked Russian peacekeepers in ensuring the security of Armenians in Artsakh.

"We will not allow you to gradually push Armenians out of there. It is impossible,” Vardanyan announced in his message recorded near a 2,049-year-old Oriental plane tree in Artsakh’s Martuni Province.

“I am making this recording in Artsakh near the unique Tanjri tree, which is known all over the world as one of the oldest trees. This tree is a symbol of life. A symbol that despite all the winds will live on if there are roots that support the tree. Artsakh is the root and foundation of all Armenians,” Vardanyan said, adding that he’ll move to Artsakh as a citizen of Armenia. (He was granted Armenian citizenship in June 2021)

Vardanyan said that the Armenians of Artsakh feel abandoned and forgotten in the post-war period and need the support of all Armenians.

“This is the center of Armenianness, which has always been a place of real power for us, and we cannot allow everything that our ancestors created for thousands of years to be forgotten,” said the 54-year-old businessman known as the father of the Russian stock market.

Vardanyan cofounded the investment company Troika Dialog in the early 1990s. He and his managers sold Troika Dialog to the Russian state-owned Sberbank for $1.4 billion. In 2014, he founded Vardanyan, Broitman and partners, an investment company serving the ultra-wealthy.

Calling on the international community to assist the Armenians of Artsakh, Vardanyan declared:

“This is not just an ancient land and ethnicity. This is one of the cradles of civilization, one of the cradles of Christianity. Both cultural and ethnic cleansing are impossible and unimaginable here. Here, on this land, there are a huge number of unique Christian monuments, unique monuments of the culture and heritage of all humanity.”

Vardanyan said Armenian authorities do not have the resources or the desire to solve Artsakh’s problems and that Armenians must unite to develop the country.

“Only a powerful, developed Artsakh, where people believe in the future, can become a place where shots will never be heard,” he said.