Today, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia Anna Vardapetyan participated online in the 11^th meeting of the Anti-Corruption Interstate Council.

This year, the 11^th meeting of the Council was hosted by the Republic of Belarus.

It should be recalled that the 10^th, anniversary meeting of the Anti-Corruption Interstate Council was held in Yerevan in 2025, as a result of which the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia assumed the chairmanship of the Council.

The members of the Anti-Corruption Interstate Council are the Prosecutors General of the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the Kyrgyz Republic; the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Anti-Corruption of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Anna Vardapetyan welcomed the heads of the delegations participating in the 11^th meeting of the the Anti-Corruption Interstate Council and expressed confidence that today’s meeting would provide another opportunity to discuss topical issues, exchange practical experience and outline areas for further cooperation.

Under agenda item 3, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia presented the progress achieved in Armenia in combating corruption offences, the relevant areas of work, the results of pre-trial and judicial proceedings, as well as the work carried out to recover damage caused to the state as a result of corruption offences.

Anna Vardapetyan noted that Armenia had recorded a decrease in the total number of corruption offences for the second consecutive year. In particular, 1,368 corruption offences were recorded in 2023, 1,116 in 2024 and 996 in 2025. Thus, over the course of two years, their number decreased by more than one quarter.

At the same time, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia emphasised that the effectiveness of combating corruption cannot be assessed based on the numerical indicator of offences; the quality of investigations, the number of proceedings referred to court and judicial acts rendered, as well as the recovery of damage caused to the state, are of key importance for such an assessment.

In 2025, 311 criminal proceedings concerning corruption offences involving 772 persons were referred to court, compared with 217 proceedings involving 493 persons referred to court in 2024. At the same time, in 2025, the courts completed 157 criminal cases concerning corruption offences involving 282 persons, of whom 193 persons were convicted in 107 cases.

Anna Vardapetyan also emphasised the development of modern mechanisms for detecting corruption offences. In this context, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia highlighted the Unified Electronic Platform for Whistleblowing, azdararir.am, which received 600 reports in 2025, compared with 380 in 2024.

The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia also presented the work carried out to eliminate the property-related consequences of corruption offences. In 2025, approximately AMD 1.643 billion in damage was recovered in criminal proceedings investigated and completed by the Anti-Corruption Committee. At the same time, as a result of the work carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia for the protection of state and community interests, on the basis of judicial acts, settlement agreements and measures of prosecutorial intervention, ownership rights of the state or communities were restored or 124 immovable properties were returned to their actual possession, with a total value of approximately AMD 66.934 billion.

Anna Vardapetyan emphasised that corruption is increasingly manifested today through complex, multilayered property schemes, real estate, interconnected persons, entrepreneurial activities and money laundering. In this context, financial investigations, tracing the origin of property and funds, as well as identifying ultimate beneficial owners, are of particular importance.

Under agenda item 4, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia presented Armenia’s experience in the field of confiscation of property of illicit origin, addressing both the establishment of the institution and the initial results of its application.

Presenting the practical results, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia noted that in 2025, the first judicial act concerning the confiscation of property of illicit origin entered into legal force, on the basis whereof property worth approximately USD 750,000 was transferred into the ownership of the Republic of Armenia. The second judicial act entered into legal force on 15 April 2026.

As of September 2026, 175 claims concerning the confiscation of property of illicit origin are pending before the courts, with a total claim value of approximately AMD 629.5 billion or around USD 1.7 billion.

At the same time, within the framework of the application of the institution, as of 1 September 2026, 11 settlement agreements had been concluded, as a result whereof movable and immovable property, as well as funds, with a total value of approximately AMD 5.5 billion or around                USD 15 million, had been confiscated in favour of the Republic of Armenia.

The Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia emphasised that the objective of modern anti-corruption policy is not only to hold persons who have committed corruption offences criminally liable, but also to deprive them of the economic proceeds of illicit activities and to recover damage caused to the state or communities.

Anna Vardapetyan stressed the importance of expanding international cooperation, emphasising that the international nature of modern financial flows makes the effective application of such instruments practically impossible exclusively within the framework of national jurisdiction. “Therefore, the further development of this institution is inevitably linked to the expansion of international cooperation, the exchange of information, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial acts, as well as the identification and tracing of assets located outside the national territory,” the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia concluded.