GYUMRI, June 7 -- They arrived in masks, and they did not leave room for lawyers. On the morning Armenia opened its parliamentary polls for the first time on a regular schedule since 2017, law-enforcement officers forced their way into the Gyumri headquarters of Strong Armenia, the opposition bloc led by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, party press secretary Marianna Kagramanyan confirmed on Sunday.

"Masked individuals are breaking into the office," Kagramanyan told RIA Novosti. "Lawyers are not being allowed in." The statement was the only public account from inside the building as police operations unfolded across Armenia's second-largest city before midday.

The Gyumri raid was not an isolated incident. According to Ger...