Arbak Khachatryan was isolated “at the hands” of two states’ special services

The FSB Directorate for Moscow and the Moscow Region has opened a criminal case that could very soon become a major international scandal. Arbak Khachatryan, an adviser to Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Oleg Mironov, has been arrested on charges of smuggling 120 thousand dollars. According to the special services’ account, during Armenia’s February presidential election the Russian ombudsman’s adviser actively sponsored presidential candidate Artashes Geghamyan’s campaign headquarters, giving its representatives money for a PR campaign.

For the first time, a Russian official has been caught financing a foreign politician who is, moreover, opposed to the incumbent authorities. The scandal has already damaged the reputation of the current Commissioner for Human Rights, Oleg Mironov. The State Duma is due to elect a new ombudsman on May 22, and Mironov’s chances of retaining his seat have sharply diminished.

The doctor-smuggler

On February 5, 2003, passengers in the VIP lounge at Sheremetyevo-1 Airport witnessed the following scene. Customs officers approached a middle-aged passenger boarding a flight to Yerevan and asked whether he had any undeclared currency. “No!” the man replied, shaking his head. They asked again; the answer was the same. “Then please show us your briefcase,” the officers insisted. It contained 120 thousand dollars: 12 bundles of hundred-dollar notes with the details of a Czech bank on their wrapping bands.

“Is this yours?” they asked again. “Mine,” he conceded. The smuggler turned out to be Moscow doctor Yuri Ryabtsev. The prosecutor’s office immediately opened a criminal case and assigned the investigation to the FSB Directorate for Moscow and the Moscow Region. The security officers were to establish where Ryabtsev had obtained such money, whom he was taking it to, and why he had not declared it.

The very first interrogation exceeded all expectations. The doctor said that Arbak Khachatryan, an adviser to Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, had given him the 120 thousand dollars the previous day. Armenia’s presidential campaign was then in full swing, and the money was allegedly intended for the PR campaign of Artashes Geghamyan, President Kocharyan’s principal opponent. Geghamyan’s men were supposed to meet Ryabtsev at Yerevan Airport, where he would hand over the briefcase.

120 thousand dollars for the Armenian opposition’s election campaign

The Russian customs operation followed a tip from employees of Armenia’s Ministry of National Security, who alerted their Russian colleagues to a passenger carrying money. According to Izvestia, Armenian special services secretly tapped the telephone calls of President Robert Kocharyan’s main rivals. Naturally, candidate Artashes Geghamyan, a member of the republic’s National Assembly and leader of the National Unity party, also came to the ministry’s attention. Looking ahead, he finished third in the election with more than 17% of the vote. One of Geghamyan’s trusted associates was Arbak Khachatryan, a former aide to former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who in February 2003 worked as an adviser to Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Oleg Mironov. Khachatryan oversaw the “holy of holies”: finances.

Apparently, an intercepted telephone conversation between the adviser and someone in Armenia informed Ministry of National Security employees about the delivery of 120 thousand dollars. A secret encrypted message was immediately sent from Yerevan to the FSB requesting the courier’s detention. To make it more convincing, the dispatch accused Arbak Khachatryan of every mortal sin: selling several Igla-type portable anti-aircraft missile systems to Chechen militants in 1997; organizing the murder of prominent Armenian television journalist Tigran Naghdalyan, chairman of the council of Armenian Public Television and Public Radio; and, finally, simply supporting “destructive forces seeking to drive a wedge into Russian-Armenian relations.”

The “Lefortovo” ombudsman

It must be borne in mind that the Kremlin unofficially supported Robert Kocharyan during the election. As is now clear, cooperation also took place at special-service level. The criminal case against Arbak Khachatryan is illustrative in this respect. On February 4, FSB officers, with court authorization, tapped the adviser’s telephone. It was from transcripts of conversations between Khachatryan and Yuri Ryabtsev that security officers learned who would take the money to Yerevan and when. On February 5, Ryabtsev was detained, charged with smuggling, and released on bail of 120 thousand rubles. Arbak Khachatryan was less fortunate. He appears in the case as the organizer of the smuggling. On February 9, he was placed in Lefortovo. Mironov’s adviser refuses to testify, citing Article 51 of the Constitution.

“Yes, Khachatryan did give Ryabtsev 120 thousand dollars, but to buy a house in Yerevan, not for a presidential candidate’s campaign,” Khachatryan’s lawyer Vladimir Levin explained. “Ryabtsev was essentially the Khachatryans’ family doctor, and when he happened to fly to Armenia, Arbak asked him as a friend to take the money. Khachatryan did not ask Ryabtsev to carry it illegally. Yuri Ryabtsev is entirely responsible for what happened. The evidence against Khachatryan is based solely on transcripts of his telephone conversations. They are completely empty and, incidentally, it is unknown whether they were obtained lawfully.”

Vladimir Levin also explained the origin of the 120 thousand dollars. “Khachatryan’s Czech business partner repaid a debt to him. That is why the bundles of dollars were wrapped with a Czech bank’s bands. The businessman who returned the money has already given investigators the relevant testimony,” the lawyer stated.

Meanwhile, Valery Voloshin, press secretary of the Commissioner for Human Rights’ office, commented on the situation as follows.

“Arbak Khachatryan came to work for us late last year. One of the State Duma’s respected deputies recommended him; I will not give the name. We took him on probation. But Khachatryan did not establish himself in any way and appeared at his workplace only two or three times. We therefore dismissed him before the criminal case was opened, and we now know nothing about his fate. Any attempt to link Commissioner for Human Rights Oleg Mironov to Arbak Khachatryan will be regarded by us as a deliberate attack on the reputation of the country’s chief ombudsman. The State Duma will elect a new commissioner on May

22. Mironov’s principal rival is deputy Pavel Krasheninnikov. I think that after reading an article like this he will rub his hands with pleasure.”

Izvestia established that Arbak Khachatryan had indeed been officially dismissed as Mironov’s adviser late last year. Nevertheless, on February 2, 2003, a week before his arrest, Oleg Mironov sent President Vladimir Putin a draft document awarding Arbak Shaumyanovich Khachatryan the rank of “first-class state counsellor.” Mr. Mironov’s press secretary learned of this document from Izvestia and was unable to comment on it.