Russia turns off gas taps to Armenia

Just days after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed an intention to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian natural gas imports, Russia’s provider, Gazprom Armenia, has taken the seemingly punitive step of announcing a prolonged cutoff of supplies.

Pashinyan told journalists on September 11 that Armenia is actively pursuing alternate sources of gas amid deepening tension in Armenian-Russian relations. Russia provided roughly 82% of Armenia’s overall gas imports in 2025.

Just three days after Pashinyan’s comments, Gazprom Armenia, abruptly announced gas supplies to Armenia would be suspended from September 15-25. The company, a subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, attributed the cutoff to “scheduled maintenance and repair work in the Russian Federation.”

Despite not providing advance warning of the cutoff, the Gazprom Armenia statement assured that the company’s action would not cause a shortage for the Armenian market thanks to the use of “domestic reserves and additional gas supplies from the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Armenian officials had no immediate comment on Gazprom Armenia’s actions and did not announce any plans to offset the suspension of Russian supplies. 

The same day that the cutoff was announced, reports circulated in Azerbaijan that Baku is willing to consider supplying Armenia with significant amounts of gas. 

But there is a big catch: Azerbaijani gas would only start to flow after the two countries finalise the provisional peace deal brokered in Washington in August 2025. A major sticking point in ongoing talks is Azerbaijan’s insistence on an amendment to Armenia’s constitution to explicitly recognise Baku’s sovereignty over the long-contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijani forces reconquered in 2023.

“If Armenia wants to diversify its gas supplies, Azerbaijan could become one of the most advantageous and natural alternatives from a geographical perspective,” an Azerbaijani MP, Azer Badamov, was quoted by the Modern.az news outlet as saying.

It is not an easy call for Pashinyan’s government. The lure of Azerbaijani gas may not be enough for it to move to satisfy Baku’s condition for finalising the peace pact, given that the deal faces substantial domestic opposition. And although Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party won a solid majority in parliament in June’s elections, it is uncertain whether a national referendum on changing the constitution would secure sufficient support. 

Over the medium term, the lingering legacy of over three decades of bitter conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan may leave Armenian officials reluctant to give Baku significant economic leverage over Yerevan at this time.

Pashinyan during his September 11 news conference expressed hope that the pending Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) would go a long way toward solving Armenia’s gas-supply dilemma. But TRIPP is also intertwined with the finalisation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.