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The second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is cooperating with a British lobbying firm, reported medium.com. They article on the website states that before the Macron-Pashinyan meeting, two European websites published articles in which Kocharyan was presented as a victim of political persecution. Moreover, the articles called on Macron to discuss the possible support to Kocharyan in a meeting with Pashinyan.
The author of the articles is Michael Burrel, a British lobbyist who was the vice-president of the APCO Worldwide lobbying agency, when the agency supported the representation of Azerbaijan’s interests in the United States through the fund financed by a billionaire son of the former Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan.
Photo from medium.com
In the next paragraph, the author of the article presents the letters sent to journalist Grigor Atanesyan’s e-mail. In the letter addressed to the journalist, the two assistants specifically mention that they cooperate with Kocharyan’s attorney, Aram Orbelyan, who is representing Kocharyan in the criminal case over March 1 events.
Photo from medium.com
The article also states that currently Burrel works at the London Eurasia Advisory firm, which, among other clients, has Russia’s state gas company Gazprom. Eurasia Advisory PR Agency was founded by Russian citizen Alexander Andreev, who represents the interests of Russian billionaire Andrei Melnikchenko.
Referring to the websites that published the articles, it is mentioned that the office of intellinews.com is locaed in Berlin and that it has representative offices in different cities, including Moscow, where the website’s editor-in-chief is based.
Moreover, the neweurope.eu website is operating in Brussels. Both websites have about 85.000-100,000 monthly views. Thus, the reporter concludes that the site does not earn revenue from advertising and draws parallels with the leading website Euronews, which has 14 million monthly views.
It should be noted as a reminder that Robert Kocharyan is currently facing charges of breaching Armenia’s constitutional order and using the army for political purposes.
Lobbyists are activists who act for the sake of the interest of someone or organization, or to have their desired outcome from a specific situation. They are generally well-informed of the constitutional processes. Currently, the profession of lobbyists is one of the highest paid professions.
Karine Kirakosyan
