U.S. backs Pashinyan due to policy alignment, political vulnerability – analyst

The United States supports Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan not because of personal attributes but due to policy alignment with U.S. interests, political analyst Hakob Badalyan said on Wednesday.

Badalyan argued that Washington’s backing reflects Pashinyan’s political course, which he said corresponds with American strategic interests. However, he added that a deeper factor may be the Armenian leader’s political vulnerability.

“He is, in essence, an almost unimaginably vulnerable figure today,” Badalyan wrote on Facebook, suggesting that such vulnerability makes him a convenient actor in geopolitical competition, where major powers seek influence through various means.

According to the analyst, global turbulence has made short-term policy positions among major powers more fluid, increasing the value of leaders who are seen as manageable. “The key factor is the demand for a vulnerable, and therefore governable, figure from whom the required outcome can be obtained when needed,” he wrote.

Badalyan noted that while Pashinyan retains some room for maneuver domestically and internationally, that margin has been reduced to a historic minimum in Armenia’s case.