Blogger Alyaksandr Lapshyn has been banned from entering Armenia. On April 5, he was told at Yerevan airport that he had to leave the country, Radyyo Svaboda reported. Border guards did not provide any documents explaining the reasons for the decision.
Shortly before that, Lapshyn had for the first time in 10 years of travelling to Armenia been refused an online electronic visa.
“I was simply physically not allowed into Armenia,” he said. “There was also a bit of background to this. I have an Israeli passport. In principle, Armenia requires an electronic visa for it. I applied online and, for the first time in my life, received a refusal. It is оформляется online, costs about 6 euros. The response usually comes within a few hours. For the first time in my life, in all the 10 years I have been travelling to Armenia, I was refused.”
He nevertheless decided to fly to Yerevan with his family, hoping to obtain a visa on arrival, but was refused again. Lapshyn still has a rented apartment, personal belongings and long-standing connections in Yerevan. He lived there for around three years and was involved in humanitarian projects.
Officially, the entry ban was explained by the fact that the blogger had published a video interview with a former Armenian prisoner of war who spoke about the conditions of detention in Azerbaijani captivity. According to the authorities, such materials undermine trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, in private conversations, Armenian law enforcement officials cited a different reason — Lapshyn ‘s repeated detentions at Belarus’s request, which they said had become tiresome for everyone.
“I was told that everyone was tired of my detentions and appeals against detentions during my visits to Yerevan,” Alyaksandr said. “And that it would be easier and more pleasant for everyone if I was simply no longer allowed into Armenia. There is nothing I can do about this. I am not an Armenian citizen, they have the right not to let me in. But it is obvious to me that after I was detained seven times at Belarus’s request, Armenian border guards simply got tired of it all.”
Before this, Armenian border guards had detained Lapshyn seven times at the request of the Belarusian authorities. In February 2026, an Armenian court ruled that Belarus’s accusations contradicted Armenian legal norms, but was unable to stop the detentions.
Lapshyn ‘s problems with the Belarusian authorities began in 2016, when he was detained in Belarus at Azerbaijan’s request for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh. Minsk handed the blogger over to Baku despite requests for his release from Moscow and Israel. In Azerbaijan, Lapshyn was sentenced to three years in prison, but in 2017 he was pardoned personally by Ilham Aliyev and left for Israel. After his release, Lapshyn filed a complaint with the UN, which officially recognised that his rights had been violated.
The blogger now says that he has no legal means left to challenge the entry ban. He has sent a request to Armenia’s border service asking for a written explanation of the decision, but has not yet received a reply.
