Gagik Tsarukyan gives a speech for the Prosperous Armenia party in 2014. Image still via: Hamlet Kirakosi / YouTube. Some rights reserved.
He’s one of the richest men in Armenia, and isn’t shy about flaunting it with his gaudy mansions and a gold-plated phone. As a US State Department cable, made available by Wikileaks, quipped, he “has a personal style which would make Donald Trump look like an ascetic.”
He is Gagik Tsarukyan. After more than two decades of incumbent victories and associated claims of fraud and protests, for many Armenians, Tsarukyan is the “change” candidate in parliamentary elections on 2 April, and his party is currently leading in polls.
