India, May 29 -- On June 7, Armenia - a landlocked nation of 3 million tucked between Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan - is to hold its parliamentary elections. The outcome, Western intelligence officials say, has become a proxy contest between Washington and Moscow, Donald Trump versus Vladimir Putin.

Current Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who leads in the opinion polls, has spent six years dismantling Armenia's alignment with Russia. Putin's regime, according to an exclusive news investigation by Reuters published this week, has been running a covert operation to ensure he loses.

Pashinyan suspended the country's membership in Moscow's regional security alliance in 2024. In March 2025, the Armenian parliament voted to be...