Russia’s security agency accuses Armenian lawmaker of benefitting from stolen diamonds

By Alexander Pracht

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday accused Armenian businessman and the ruling Civil Contract party’s parliament member Khachatur Sukiasyan of benefitting from stolen diamonds smuggled from Russia into Armenia, allegations his spokesperson denied.

The FSB claimed that it had uncovered a scheme that allowed a criminal group of Russians and Armenians steal high-quality diamonds from Russian mining giant Alrosa and send them to an Armenian company called ADM Diamonds, allegedly owned by Sukiasyan. The Russian security agency named Armenian citizens as key figures in the plot, saying that the stolen stones were ultimately sold across Armenia.

“Stolen diamonds were shipped to Armenia’s ADM Diamond, whose beneficiary is Armenian lawmaker K. Sukiasyan,” the FSB said in a statement.

The alleged operation involved Alrosa employee Valentina Matyushenkova, her son, and Armenian and Russian nationals Armen Petrosyan and Arman Sahakyan, who were arrested while attempting to steal a batch of diamonds estimated at roughly $22,000. 

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into theft and illegal trafficking of natural gemstones, and officials have already seized 200,000 carats of industrial diamonds, a much less valuable material meant to substitute the precious gems in shipments.

“Khachatur Sukiasyan has never had any connection to or dealings with a company engaged in the diamond trade,” his spokesperson Anna Mkrtchyan told Armenia’s branch of Radio Free Europe. “The allegations made by the Russian security service are completely baseless.”

Artak Bagikyan, who manages the ADM Diamonds factory, also rejected any ties between himself or the company and the group recently arrested in Russia on diamond theft and smuggling charges.

“Neither ADM Diamonds nor I have anything to do with the reports circulating in the Russian media,” Bagikyan told investigative publication Hetq. He also said that the factory has no connection to Sukiasyan.

In 2021, a subsidiary of ADM was also involved in a controversy over underreporting the value of diamonds imported from the United Arab Emirates, allowing the company to evade substantial customs duties. The case raised questions about transparency in Armenia’s diamond sector and the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms at the time.

Over the past few years, Armenia has become a haven for Russian gold and precious stones. Amid international sanctions and increasing geopolitical isolation of Russia, Armenia became a major transit point through which billions of dollars’ worth of these materials flowed east to the United Arab Emirates and China.

That gold rush created rapid speculative growth for Armenia’s economy. However, as often happens in what economists call “Dutch disease,” the sudden inflow of wealth was not followed by structural reforms or sustainable economic development. Armenia’s largest importer and exporter of Russian gold in 2024 was the Yerevan Jewelry Factory, owned by Sukiasyan.

Also read: The Gold that Inflated Armenia: How Windfall Russian Money Triggered a ‘Dutch Disease’