NEWS.am sat down with internationally renowned attorney Robert Amsterdam, who serves as lead international counsel for Samvel Karapetyan.

Mr. Amsterdam, let's start with the latest accusations from the ruling party directed at you personally. Ruben Rubinyan has accused you of having connections to Jeffrey Epstein, specifically claiming you represented him, and he has now published an email from your firm referencing a proposed engagement letter for Mr. Wade, Sr. What is your response to this? How do you explain the context of that communication?

Well, my response – to use a colloquial expression – is that Ruben is a moron, because he hasn't even read the document. The ruling party is so desperate to smear people that they don't even read the lies that they spout, because the engagement letter is for a different person. It's not for Mr. Epstein. It's for Mr. Wade, who is an individual in Senegal. If they had managed to do even the smallest due diligence, they'd have seen that, and they'd have realized that we never even offered our services to Mr. Epstein. Mr. Epstein, in the one meeting I had about an African client, did raise the possibility of me working for him, and I declined. I have young daughters, and I had no interest in getting involved in anything involving sexually inappropriate behavior, especially given the fact that in the jurisdictions he was looking for, I'm not even qualified. So these allegations are typical of the big lie campaign of Mr. Pashinyan, who, to be frank, appears to be a basically unbalanced individual who has spent the last week of the campaign attacking not only myself and leaders of the opposition, but his own citizens. The man doesn't appear to be able to walk through a street without getting into a fight with voters over his abandonment of Artsakh, his abandonment of the church, his abandonment of his own people. He is a sellout – a sellout to the Azeris, whichever foreign country you would like — but he's certainly not looking after the interests of Armenians.

Are you planning any legal response to those accusations?

Absolutely. If they fail to apologize, we will sue them. I threw out $10 million dollars; maybe it'll be more. And any judge who sees that Ruben or the others didn't even bother to read the document they were waving around will be fairly outraged. Trying to connect me – given that I represent a number of important religious institutions — to Mr. Epstein is disgraceful. Let alone doing it with no research, when on the very face of the documents it's clear I had no interest in representing Mr. Epstein. It should be an embarrassment to any government. But I think that Pashinyan's government is beyond embarrassment. They are a gang that simply believes they can lie their way to re-election based on the West's endorsement of their sell-out of the Armenian people.

What do you think the motives are behind those accusations?

Well, clearly we're being effective. They would not be attacking us if they didn't feel we were being effective in presenting the truth to Armenians concerning Samvel Karapetyan, concerning his beliefs, concerning the fact that Mr. Karapetyan had no interest in political office until Mr. Pashinyan made these insane attacks on the church and on the leadership of the church – attacks which are contained in that form. So every Armenian needs to know that a vote for Pashinyan is a vote against the church, a vote which would give this man the power, he thinks, to remove the leader of the church and, in fact, restructure the church in a manner completely inconsistent with canon law.

How do you see the pre-election atmosphere now? In recent weeks, political rhetoric has noticeably escalated, including direct threats and increasingly aggressive language directed at Samvel Karapetyan and his party by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Listen, Mr. Pashinyan is a desperate man. He is a man who has changed his platform and his politics so often that any look at the history of his behavior is just an embarrassment to him. So I think, as people wise up to the fact that he has no substance and that he, in fact, has sold out Armenia to the highest bidder, even his statements are so inconsistent. Three weeks ago he said that Russian-Armenian relations have never been better. Then he invited Mr. Zelensky to Armenia, and as a result of that, Mr. Putin has engaged in wrongful conduct threatening the Armenian people. We don't need to be rocket scientists to understand that bringing Zelensky to Armenia was not in the interest of the Armenian people, and unnecessarily alienating Russia, given the economic ties, really makes very little sense if you're interested in keeping Armenia open to all countries. Clearly, the goal should be a multipolar foreign policy: good relations with the United States, good relations with the EU, and reasonable relations with Russia.

Do you believe the environment that we see now allows for a free and fair campaign?

Look, to be honest with you, the interference by the EU and Russia pales into insignificance compared to the interference by Mr. Pashinyan. He is jailing journalists. He is jailing opposition leaders. He has jailed leading members of the church. He is an autocrat who is handing out jobs to people that he thinks will support him. Quite honestly, it is Pashinyan who is the great barrier to a free and fair election.

You are saying that there is interference from the Russian side as well. What are you referring to?

Mr. Putin has openly been threatening economic retaliation, and I view that as interference. I think any comments made by any leader this close to an election can be viewed as interference.

Well, you already talked about Russia. There appears to be a growing and coordinated effort to portray Samvel Karapetyan and the "Strong Armenia" bloc as a proxy for Russian interests. First, leaked documents alleged that Samvel Karapetyan was an FSB agent. More recently, members of the ruling party circulated claims questioning whether Narek Karapetyan is a Russian citizen or not. Moreover, there is already an official legal investigation on this matter. What do you think about this? How is your team responding to those claims?

Well, they're all lies. And these claims will escalate as we get near the election, because Pashinyan cannot defeat Mr. Karapetyan. So all he can do is lie and cheat and use illegal and wrongful tactics to attempt to accomplish his goals. He will not succeed, and this report that I read, trying to connect Samvel to the FSB, is a joke. The documents are Photoshopped fakes. We know who put the documents together – it's a team connected to Pashinyan. This is all pre-election, Russian-type behavior that Mr. Pashinyan is engaging in. I don't think there's a politician in Armenia who more closely resembles Vladimir Putin than Mr. Pashinyan.

What do you think the reason is behind all this?

Look, I think it's desperation. I think Mr. Pashinyan has changed his political colors so often that you really can't keep track of him. He has no credibility as a politician. So what he has is the administrative resources of the state to try to attack, arrest, and detain. I mean, let's be clear: Samvel Karapetyan has not been allowed to campaign. He's been kept to his home, and it's only the resourcefulness of himself and his family that have kept him in the frame. And of course, he is a man of substance. Unlike Mr. Pashinyan, Mr. Karapetyan is a great success – an individual whose ties to the church go back to his boyhood, go back to his father. This is a man who has the church and the country in his blood, and who respects tradition, culture, history, and language. These are all things Mr. Pashinyan has no ability to claim. His own father doesn't think he's fit for purpose. His wife has just left him, which can happen, obviously, to anybody, but when you tie that in to the comments of the father, it leads you to tremendous concern. Then you watch his physical attacks on voters and you watch how unstable he seems to be during the election period, and it raises a lot of concern as to whether the man is fit for this high office.

Do you see this as a coordinated attempt to disqualify the party from the election? Do you think such a scenario is possible?

No, it would be such an outrage that it would offend, I think, everyone's sensibilities at this point, because it's fairly common knowledge that, despite Western polls, Mr. Karapetyan is in fact pulling ahead of Mr. Pashinyan. So I think it would be viewed as an outrageous step to defeat the democratic interests of the Armenian people.

You're talking about interference. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is arriving in Yerevan tomorrow. That's an official visit. But it is happening two weeks right before those elections. Do you see any connection between his visit and the upcoming elections?

Look, we don't know what the purpose of the visit is. Obviously, I have spoken out aggressively about having an EU event a month before the election. So I'm certainly willing to give my Secretary of State a reasonable doubt, but the timing is a very serious issue to everyone who believes that the Armenian people should be allowed to vote in peace. But there may be something of urgency – I don't want to second-guess it. Let's see what happens. I know that it would be our desire that Mr. Rubio would meet if this is something like a campaign visit with Mr. Karapetyan and others who are campaigning for high office.

This visit may be represented as support from the US for the Armenian government and Mr. Pashinyan. What do you think about that?

Look, they held the EU summit with 45 heads of state, and Pashinyan's numbers went down. I think if Mr. Rubio made this an endorsement, it would only benefit the opposition, as I think the Armenian people would know full well that this was interference at the highest level. So again, I am going to refrain from attacking the visit and give Mr. Rubio the benefit of the doubt, as I'm sure Mr. Karapetyan will, and let's see what transpires.

Let's turn to your latest white paper, "Interference by Design." Your firm accuses the European Union of actively intervening in Armenia's domestic politics in ways that benefit Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's administration. You specifically point to EU financial support, the development of the Hybrid Rapid Response Team, and the recent Yerevan summit as evidence of what you describe as non-neutral political involvement during a sensitive pre-election period. I would like to know: how do you respond to critics who argue that your report is not an objective warning about foreign influence?

Well, to be honest with you, what I always find interesting about Armenia is that no one discusses the substance. Our report is put together by some of the leading lawyers in the world, and it's a very cogent attack on election interference, citing the law. And to be frank with you, I'd like someone to engage with us on substance, because it appears to me as if the EU has completely engaged in the same kind of behavior they engaged in in Moldova, where they effectively stole an election, and they seem to be trying to do the same thing here in Armenia – although I think the dangers to the Armenian people are even greater, because, as I said, I think there is serious doubt as to whether Mr. Pashinyan is personally fit for high office. I think his behavior seems incredibly unsteady and is of great concern in terms of his fitness for office.

You were saying that in the upcoming days there may be more allegations from the ruling party directed at Samvel Karapetyan and his team. What do you expect?

There is no limit to the ability of Pashinyan and his group to lie and cheat. To be frank with you, they don't even do it intelligently. Unlike other countries where autocrats behave with some elegance, there is no elegance around Mr. Pashinyan. He engages in brute force. He arrests people – as he did with Mr. Karapetyan, putting him in a dungeon for months, basically begging him to sign off his rights and his right to protect the church. And to his great credit, Mr. Karapetyan did not fall for that, because Mr. Karapetyan is a man of principle and a man of God. And I think that when you have someone of that character fighting for high office, it is a great benefit to the Armenian people to have someone who is that close to national institutions that have meaning. Armenia is a country that has been battered under the rule of Pashinyan. It is a country that has lost its way. Everyone understands Pashinyan's vision of a "real Armenia" that destroys the church, destroys the constitution, and sells part of the country to Azerbaijan. This is not a vision that anyone who loves Armenia can cling to. This is a vision of defeatism and incompetence, and — outside of Pol Pot of Cambodia — I've never seen anyone successfully run on a platform that denies the history of their own people. And if Mr. Pashinyan were to win, it would be a tremendous condemnation of the Armenian nation, and I don't believe that nation wants to suffer another defeat. Again, I've called Mr. Pashinyan the Pol Pot of Armenia for denying the history of the country. I want to say that his behavior – and it's Ruben's birthday today, and I saw the statement that he's released, which I think every Armenian should read in its denunciation of Pashinyan's behavior – there is no country on earth that, having hostages in a hostile country, would do as little as Pashinyan has done in order to free them. You had that embarrassing interchange in Washington when it was President Trump who raised the issue of the Christian hostages. And we have the situation where Switzerland offered to assist, and Mr. Pashinyan declined. His behavior towards the hostages is unthinkable. And we know why that behavior takes place: because he knows that when Ruben and the others get out, they will denounce his conduct. They will shame him, given their courage and his weakness. And that's why he's doing nothing to free the hostages. And if a foreigner such as myself can see that clearly, I imagine it should be clear to all of the Armenian people. And, you know, my last comment would be that this issue of being pro-Russian is absolutely a false start. My client is pro-Armenian and very much pro the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. And I watched it for myself when I met with him while he was in jail. I can only tell you that for somebody who witnessed his behavior, it was a tremendous lesson in courage – a man of that substance, not clinging to any technicality to free him, but standing there on principle for country, church, and family. It was very moving, and there was nothing pro-Russian about it. There was a man sticking to the principles and the church he learned from his father.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1038309