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Ex-Karabakh State Minister Vardanyan gets 20 years behind bars

Ruben Vardanyan was charged with crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism and its financing, and illegally crossing Azerbaijan’s border

BAKU, February 17. /TASS/. The Baku Military Court has sentenced Ruben Vardanyan, former state minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which ceased to exist in 2024, to 20 years in prison, the Azerbaijan State News Agency reported.

Vardanyan was charged with crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism and its financing, and illegally crossing Azerbaijan’s border. The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Azerbaijani border guards detained Vardanyan on September 27, 2023, at the Lachin checkpoint while he was attempting to leave Karabakh for Armenia. His trial lasted more than a year, beginning in January 2025, and was overseen by Judge Zeynal Aghayev.

Businessman Vardanyan is the founder of Troika Dialogue and the first president of the Skolkovo Management School. In September 2022, he announced his decision to renounce Russian citizenship and move to Karabakh. His application to renounce citizenship was approved in December 2022. In November 2022, he was appointed state minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, but was dismissed in February 2023.

On February 5, the Baku Military Court sentenced other representatives of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic leadership to various prison terms. Former head of the unrecognized entity Arayik Harutyunyan, who served from 2020 to 2023, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Former Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, former Speaker of Parliament Davit Ishkhanyan, and former Deputy Commander of Armenian forces in Karabakh Davit Manukyan were also sentenced to life in prison.

Former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic leaders Arkady Ghukasyan, who served from 1997 to 2007, and Bako Sahakyan, who served from 2007 to 2020, were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The court noted that both men were 65 at the time of sentencing and therefore ineligible for life imprisonment. All were found guilty of unleashing and waging an aggressive war, genocide, torture, mercenary activities, violating the laws and customs of war and international humanitarian law during armed conflict, terrorism, and its financing.

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