The signing of a U.S.-Armenia agreement to build an American-designed nuclear power plant has drawn a sharp reaction from Moscow.
The Kremlin publicly criticized the deal between Washington and Yerevan, which provides for $9 billion in investment to construct a U.S. nuclear power station in Armenia.
Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and now secretary of Russia’s Security Council, weighed in with a statement carried by Russian media.
The agreement was announced during U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Yerevan.
It envisions a new U.S.-built nuclear plant in Armenia that could eventually replace the Metsamor station, which supplies about 40% of the country’s electricity. That facility is currently controlled by Moscow, leaving Armenia heavily dependent on Russia. Closer cooperation between Yerevan and Washington would deprive the Kremlin of a key lever of pressure.
“In the event that construction of small reactors using American technology on Armenian territory moves into a practical phase, we, (...), and the population of Armenia itself will be forced to take these new nuclear safety risks into account... Right next door, (...), American experiments in atomic technologies will be carried out... This should be regarded as a threat,” he said.
According to Shoygu, Russia has several fundamental objections to the project.
He also sought to pressure Armenia by invoking the country’s difficult energy situation in the early 1990s. “Although things were very hard in Russia then, we managed to find a way to help our Armenian friends,” he said.
Shoygu further questioned the project’s economics. He said that if it involves NuScale Power’s 77‑megawatt modules, “it was precisely the high cost of energy that caused the failure of its project in the state of Utah.” He added that spent nuclear fuel would be stored in Armenia and argued that the deal resembles a purchase of a plant rather than full-fledged investment in the national economy.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova had earlier claimed the United States is offering Yerevan allegedly untested solutions whose eventual cost could exceed initial estimates.
The agreement is part of a broader U.S. strategy to strengthen its position in the South Caucasus. Months earlier, Donald Trump acted as a mediator in preparing a draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The document provides for a transit corridor through Armenian territory called the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.” It had previously been assumed that Moscow could gain control of the so‑called Zangezur Corridor. Russia has since lost that opportunity.
Amid the new energy project, Russia’s influence in Armenia’s nuclear sector is in question. Construction of a U.S. plant could significantly shift the regional balance, reducing Yerevan’s economic and technological dependence on Moscow. For the Kremlin, that would mark another geopolitical setback.
