The Kremlin-friendly oligarch of Armenian origin Ruben Vardanyan, who until 2023 headed the pro-Russian separatist administration in Karabakh as the so-called ”prime minister”, has been nominated for the “Vaclav Havel” Human Rights Prize for 2026.
This is the annual award for the protection of human rights of the Council of Europe (CoE), awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Vardanyan is currently serving a sentence in Azerbaijan on a number of charges related to terrorism and war crimes. Just a year ago, the same pan-European institution warned about Vardanyan's ties to Moscow and demanded sanctions against him.
Today, however, there is a real possibility that he could use a European platform for his own political legitimization. Such a decision would be a serious political and reputational blunder, especially against the backdrop of his controversial public and international reputation.
Vardanyan gained fame as the founder and head of the Russian offshore financial company Troika Dialog. According to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, funds were transferred through the company to influential figures in Russia, including some of the representatives of President Vladimir Putin's close circle.
In 2019, 22 members of the European Parliament (EP) called on the European Union (EU) to immediately impose sanctions against this person, who had become one of the "portfolios" of the Russian elite. In January 2022, Vardanyan, along with other figures close to the Kremlin, was included in a draft list of new US sanctions.
“Ruben Vardanyan was sent to Karabakh by Russia”, commented in January 2023 British Conservative Party MP Bob Blackman in his unequivocal statement: “We must clearly understand that this is a person against whom sanctions have been imposed due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine”.
The British MP recalled that the oligarch's companies “were used and participated in the process of expanding the Russian military presence both in Ukraine and in Karabakh.“
Vardanyan himself also makes no particular effort to distance himself from his image as a “man of Moscow”. In his public appearances, he demonstratively avoids condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The nomination for the “Vaclav Havel“ seems like another attempt at positive PR by Vardanyan's team. The goal is to reshape his public image and present him as a “human rights defender“, rather than a figure against whom there are serious international accusations.
As early as 2024, circles close to Moscow tried to promote him for the Nobel Peace Prize under the pretext of “developing peace initiatives“.
At that time, the Czech edition of CNN Prima NEWS commented that “Kremlin propaganda circles are trying to use the international authority of the Nobel Committee”: “Only to rehabilitate Ruben Vardanyan in the eyes of the West“.
The sharp reaction of over 120 deputies from countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Ukraine, as well as the subsequent criticism from the international media, however, managed to thwart the realization of this scenario.
“We consider it unacceptable and absurd grotesque to nominate a person who supports terrorism and separatism for the Nobel Peace Prize”, says the common position of the parliamentarians.
The deputies recalled then that the person Ruben Vardanyan is “involved in corruption scandals” and that this oligarch has for years “sponsored Russian aggression in the post-Soviet space and, accordingly, is an enemy of Ukraine.“
Now the European institutions are once again faced with the need to demonstrate consistency and not allow a European platform to be used in the interests of the Kremlin's military-political machine.
The “Václav Havel“ award should remain a symbol of the protection of human rights rights, not a tool for image rehabilitation of individuals with a very controversial past.
Nikolai Marchenko, international journalist (Sofia, Bulgaria)