Ruben Vardanyan, the former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh and a prominent Russian-Armenian businessman and philanthropist, faces the prospect of life imprisonment in Azerbaijan after new charges were filed against him. 

Vardanyan, 56, was detained in September 2023 while attempting to cross into Armenia following Azerbaijan’s military takeover of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

He faced charges that were initially limited to terrorism-related offences. Now, however, they encompass a wide array of allegations, from separatism to embezzlement, after Azerbaijani prosecutors unveiled 45 additional charges against him. The charges include financing terrorism and organising illegal armed groups. The case against Vardanyan was sent to court ahead of New Year, after he had already been held in a Baku prison for over a year. 

bne IntelliNews spoke with Vardanyan’s son, David Vardanyan, and the head of his legal team Jared Gesner about the legal process and the conditions Vardanyan is being kept in in Baku. 

Lack of transparency 

The Vardanyan family and the legal team working on Ruben Vardanyan’s case have repeatedly complained about the lack of transparency surrounding the trial. 

“It’s really stunning — the breadth and scope of the charges,” Genser said. “This is not about justice. It’s about using Ruben as a bargaining chip in Azerbaijan’s geopolitical games.”  

Ruben Vardanyan’s family and the legal team based in the US, being barred from entering Azerbaijan, work with a local lawyer. They have no access to Vardanyan, or to the most recent charges and the alleged evidence brought against him in Baku. 

Communication with Vardanyan has been limited. Phone calls with his family occur sporadically.

Vardanyan’s legal team claims that the “fabricated evidence is presented in more than 25,000 pages across 100 volumes, all written in Azeri”. The team does not have access to the documents. 

According to his legal team, Vardanyan was subjected to inhumane conditions during the initial weeks of his detention. He was reportedly held in a small punishment cell with the lights kept on 24 hours a day and was denied water and access to reading materials during a two-week hunger strike. Vardanyan protested the conditions when announcing his hunger strike, which only worsened the situation 

“We’ve submitted a complaint to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, documenting the abusive conditions Ruben endured,” Genser said. “While the current conditions are less severe, his detention remains deeply unjust and psychologically damaging.”

UN tribunal 

Ruben Vardanyan’s legal team has brought his case before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is expected to issue a judgment in early 2025. While such a judgment may not directly secure his release, it could increase international pressure on Azerbaijan, which is what the lawyers and Vardanyan’s family are hoping for.  

“It will be an independent and impartial view of a well known and highly regarded UN tribunal that will examine the, the detention of Ruben Vardanyan and whether or not it is compatible with Azerbaijan's obligations under treaties they have signed and ratified such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Genser told bne IntelliNews. 

Genser said he believes there’s a “huge gap” between the conventions Azerbaijan has signed on protection of human rights and the way it treats its citizens and political prisoners in reality. 

“And so the question is, how do you close that gap? How do you compel states to abide by their obligations under international law? And it's really by a very carefully sequenced and strategic set of legal, political and public relations actions that seek to hold the government accountable for what's done,” Genser said. 

Genser sees the return of former US president Donald Trump to power and an apparent pro-Armenian post he made during the election campaign as an additional trigger for Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to look for more leverage in the international arena. 

Having worked on cases concerning political prisoners for the past two decades, Genser believes that dictators arrest political prisoners “because they're afraid of them”. “Their general inclination is to, of course, not want to release them … the reality is that in order to free political prisoners, you have to elevate the cost of their detention well above the benefits of their detention,” he added. 

“My hope and my belief from my experience is that he [Aliyev] will ultimately come to the conclusion that he has no choice but to release Ruben,” Genser said. 

Ex-officials held in prison

Along with Vardanyan, more than 20 other former state officials are currently being held in Baku prisons on various charges. 

Officials in Yerevan and Baku have not publicly addressed the issue of the prisoners as part of the peace deal between the two countries, although they recently announced that 15 of the 17 clauses of the peace agreement have now been agreed. 

According to various sources, the two remaining clauses are the withdrawal of the European Union monitoring mission from Armenia and the withdrawal of international complaints against each other. Both of Baku's demands were met with controversy in Armenia. However, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that both demands can be met by Armenia if the deal is signed.  

David Vardanyan says he does not know whether the issue of Armenian prisoners is among the 15 already agreed by the parties.

Banker, politician and philanthropist

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1968, Vardanyan rose to prominence in the 1990s as the co-founder of Troika Dialog, Russia’s largest investment bank. The firm played a pivotal role in developing Russia’s stock market. In 2013, he sold Troika Dialog to Sberbank for $1.4bn.

In Armenia, Vardanyan is best known for his philanthropy and later for his sudden but limited involvement in Armenian politics, when he began supporting a minor party in the country that has had some success in local elections over the past three years. 

Vardanyan co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which funds global humanitarian projects and honours those who risk their lives to save others. He also founded UWC Dilijan, an international boarding school in Armenia. 

Despite his deep ties to Russia and perceived connections with the country's elite, Vardanyan renounced his Russian citizenship in 2022, before moving to Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Following his arrest by Azerbaijani forces in September 2023, the renunciation of Russian citizenship backfired on both Yerevan and Moscow, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan having asked “who advised” Vardanyan to renounce his citizenship and move to Karabakh, implying that Moscow sent him to Karabakh. Vardanyan responded to Pashinyan from prison, wondering why the Armenian leader hadn't asked him these questions when they met in late 2022.

The narrative of Moscow being behind Vardanyan has also been widely discussed by officials in Baku and in Azerbaijani state media. During the brief tensions between Moscow and Baku, Aliyev and his team accused the Kremlin of sending Vardanyan to Karabakh to help the Armenian-inhabited region. The narrative, however, faded after the September 2023 military offensive, Vardanyan’s arrest and Moscow’s complete silence on the developments since then. 

Both Vardanyan and the Kremlin have firmly denied any such arrangement. Moreover, the Russian foreign ministry referred to Vardanyan's renunciation of Russian citizenship when responding to questions about Moscow's possible involvement in his release, implying that Armenia as a country is responsible for protection of the rights of its citizens. 

Aside from the falling out between Vardanyan and Pashinyan in early 2024, the Armenian government has remained largely silent on the issue of Vardanyan and other Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan. David Vardanyan remains hopeful that the Armenian government is working "behind the scenes" to reach an agreement on his father's release, saying the Republic of Armenia “is the main defender” of the prisoners in Azerbaijan that hold Armenian citizenship.