Russia silent on Azerbaijan’s destruction of WWII memorial in Karabakh

The Artsakh Monuments project, which tracks the developments around Armenian cultural heritage in the region, reported last Wednesday that Azerbaijani authorities had destroyed a World War II memorial in Nagorno-Karabakh, the latest in a series of such incidents since the region came under Baku’s control following the ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians in 2023.

The memorial, located in the village of Astghashen, commemorated local residents who died fighting against Nazi Germany, as well as servicemembers killed in the First Karabakh war. According to the group, the destruction was identified using satellite imagery and occurred sometime between April 2024 and July 2025.

CivilNet filed formal inquiries last Wednesday with Russia’s embassies in both Yerevan and Baku regarding the destruction of the memorial in Astghashen, but has received no response as of this writing. No public statement was issued by Russia’s Foreign Ministry or its diplomats on the matter either. This contrasts with a recent vandalism incident involving a World War II memorial in Armenia’s Gyumri, where gilded letters were torn down and discarded in a nearby bin.

“We have noticed attempts by certain outlets linked to the [Armenian] authorities to portray the incident as a deliberate provocation by the Russian side,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said

“Past experiences in other countries show that defying the memory of ancestors and the removal of memorials is a natural part, and sometimes even a mandatory condition, for having closer ties with the EU,” Zakharova added.

In Gyumri’s case, Russia’s embassy in Armenia said the incident could not be treated as hooliganism but as a “desecration of the Great Victory,” urging Armenian authorities to issue a statement. The reaction prompted backlash among the Armenian public, where some interpreted it as political pressure, with many online users accusing Russia of orchestrating the incident as a false flag, claims for which no evidence has been presented.

Armenian authorities later reported detaining a suspect in the case, but Zakharova announced last Thursday that Moscow had nonetheless lodged a formal note of protest with Armenian diplomats.

Following the Gyumri incident, multiple social media posts, most originating from accounts lacking avatars and with usernames containing strings of numerals, suggesting possible bot disinformation activity, sought to link the vandalism to an alleged rise in “Nazi sentiments” in Armenia. Written in Russian, those claimed: “Armenians have followed the example of Ukrainian Nazis; they have started tearing down monuments.”