Armenia’s Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) yesterday launched criminal proceedings against Serzh Sargsyan, the country’s former president, on charges that while in office he demanded and received bribes from a Russian businessman in exchange for conducting business in Armenia on preferential terms.

The PGO told Hetq that the businessman in question is Mikhail Baghdasarov.

Sargsyan served as Armenia’s third president from 2008 to 2018 and twice as prime minister from 2007-2008 and for one week in April 2018 before he was forced to resign amidst large-scale protests led by current Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan.

In May 2024, a Yerevan court found  Sargsyan not guilty of charges that he masterminded the embezzlement of 489 million drams (just over $1 million) in 2013 from a state-sponsored diesel fuel assistance program.

The 2024 charges date to the spring of 2013, when the Armenian government approved a State Assistance Program for the purchase of diesel fuel at affordable prices for agricultural activities.