Armenian pro-Russian paramilitary leader dies of injuries following Moscow explosion
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by Nate Ostiller
4 February 2025
(Updated: about 13 hours ago)
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Armen Sargsyan. Photo: TASS.
?Armen Sargsyan. Photo: TASS.
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new information.

Armen Sargsyan, an Armenian-born military leader who founded the pro-Russian paramilitary group Arbat, which fought alongside Russian troops during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, died in hospital on Monday after being injured in an explosion at a Moscow apartment complex earlier in the day, the state-run media outlet TASS reported.

On Tuesday, TASS confirmed that one of Sargsyan’s guards had also been killed and several others injured. Later, TASS wrote that the explosion may have been the result of a suicide bombing.

Russia’s State Investigative Committee said it had launched an inquiry into the explosion under several criminal codes, including murder.

After several high-profile killings of Russian officials inside the country — such as the death of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow in December — there was immediate speculation that Sargsyan had been assassinated, presumably at the behest of Ukrainian security services.

While not explicitly saying that Ukraine was responsible, a source in law enforcement told TASS that Sargsyan’s death was believed to be an assassination.

Kyiv often does not comment on assassinations or other attacks that occur within Russia, and has not made an official reaction to Sargsyan’s death. However, an unnamed source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that the agency had been responsible for Kirillov’s death.

Crime boss, paramilitary leader, boxing federation head
Sargsyan was born in Yerevan, but relocated to the Ukrainian city of Horlivka, located in the Donbas region, during his childhood, and subsequently obtained Ukrainian citizenship.

He has been referred to as a ‘known mafia boss’, and was also closely associated with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.

Sargsyan has been on Ukraine’s wanted list since 2014, and was accused of orchestrating murders in Kyiv, as well as organising so-called ‘titushki’ (a phrase referring to ununiformed men who were hired to attack protesters and other opposition figures) to harass or intimidate participants of the EuroMaidan demonstrations.

Following the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sargsyan founded the Arbat Battalion, a pro-Russian paramilitary group consisting of mostly ethnic Armenians, many of whom were also reportedly former members of the Wagner mercenary group.

Horlivka has remained under Russian occupation since 2014, and the SBU said that Sargsyan helped oversee prisons in the area, as well as recruit prisoners to join the Arbat Battalion.

In addition to Ukraine, the Arbat Battalion has also reportedly been involved in attempts to interfere in Armenian affairs.

In September 2024, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said it had arrested several Armenian nationals, as well as Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, for allegedly training with the Arbat Battalion in Russia in preparation to try and overthrow the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Nonetheless, TASS’s short biography of Sargsyan contained no mention of any of these events, nor the Arbat Battalion, and solely referred to him as the ‘head of the Boxing Federation of the Donetsk People’s Republic’, a term used to describe one of the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region.

https://oc-media.org/armenian-pro-r...-of-injuries-following-moscow-explosion/

The Alye Parusa (Scarlet Sails) apartment complex in Moscow’s north-western Shchukino suburb bills itself as an exclusive place to live, and a safe one, too, with cameras, gates and 24-hour security. Neither this, nor his detail of bodyguards, saved Armen Sargsyan when, on Monday morning, a bomb with more than a kilo of explosive detonated as he was walking out the lobby. His leg was blown off, and although he was airlifted to hospital, he died shortly after.

So far, this appears to be the latest in a campaign of assassinations carried out by Ukrainian intelligence. Sargsyan was a rather different figure to the last target in Moscow, Lt. Gen. Kirillov. Born in Armenia, Sargsyan later moved to Gorlivka, a grimy industrial occupied Ukrainian city (twinned, incidentally, with Barnsley) north of Donetsk. He was a criminal-businessman turned warlord, who had acquired the underworld nickname ‘Armen Gorlivsky’ for the stranglehold he acquired over legal and illegal business there. Sargsyan, whom they described as “a criminal authority."

It's complicated to follow, I'm in America, so maybe that is part of it. He definitely did a lot, and I'm not saying he was good or bad, but at least he got out here and fought and died. Most people just send money and let others go into combat. I wish that the term :Mafia Boss" would be limited to the real Mafia, not every group around the world, I'm not putting that on you Hollander, it's the way they talk in the media. "The Greek Mafia, The Albannian Mafia, The Irish Mafia."


From both articles he seems more like a soldier of fortune than a gangster, do you know what rackets he was involved with? Drugs, gambling, robberies or anything else?

I don't know but he def had links to the former Russian KGB.

From small-time Ukrainian crime boss to potential Prigozhin rival Who was Armen Sarkisyan, the Russian paramilitary head killed in a Moscow blast?

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/0...-crime-boss-to-potential-prigozhin-rival

Jace, I agree with you. I personally think that the only 2 groups that should be called the Mafia is the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra, and it's American counterpart, La Cosa Nostra (LCN) otherwise known as the American Mafia. The other Italian crime syndicates have their own specific names, i.e. Camorra, Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, Stidda, etc. I also think that Calabrian Mafia, Neapolitan Mafia, Puglian Mafia, etc is acceptable. All other ethnic organized groups that are not Italian are not the Mafia. And if you do insist on calling them so, then spell Mafia with a lowercase "m" and put "mafia" in quotation marks. Just my 2 cents.

Liggio that's why I called him Crime Boss instead of Mafia Boss.
Like calling the dutch underworld mafia it's silly we call it penoze or milieu.