Political apathy is gripping Armenia at a time when the government is making a geopolitical pivot away from Russia and toward the West, a new poll shows.

The survey, conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in mid-September, indicates that the population’s trust in Armenian politicians has reached alarming lows. The data, gathered through telephone interviews with 1,503 citizens and displaced residents from Nagorno-Karabakh, reveals growing disillusionment with politics.

The most trusted political figure, according to the poll, is Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, but his trust rating stood at a paltry 16 percent. The trust percentage of other prominent figures, including Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, pro-government politician Aram Z. Sargsyan, Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan and former president Robert Kocharyan, all were in the low single digits. A whopping 61 percent said they did not trust any politician.

The results reflect a precipitous decline in public faith of politicians since 2018, when mass protests swept Pashinyan to power amid the Velvet Revolution. The Pashinyan government’s inability to meet initial expectations for rapid reform, combined with Armenia’s decisive defeat in the Second Karabakh War, have acted as the main catalysts for changing attitudes.

Despite the rock-bottom levels of trust in politicians, more Armenians (46 percent) believe the country is headed in the right direction as opposed to the wrong direction (40 percent), the poll found. Meanwhile, 58 percent said they would vote ‘yes’ if a referendum were held in Armenia on whether the country should join the European Union.

The IRI poll also showed that 29 percent of respondents said they were disinclined to vote in the next parliamentary vote, while another 16 percent declined to answer. Turnout figures for national and local elections have been declining in recent years. The Yerevan municipal election in 2023 had only a 28.4 percent turnout.

Along with declining trust in politicians, Armenians’ attitudes towards Russia have experienced a significant shift over the past six years. Over that time span, Pashinyan’s government has accused Moscow of failing to fulfill security guarantees concerning Karabakh and has downgraded relations with Russia while bolstering ties with the United States and EU. An IRI poll conducted in 2018 showed that 87 percent of Armenians were satisfied with Armenian-Russian relations; this year’s poll showed 35 percent of respondents described bilateral relations as “good,” while roughly 65 percent considered them “bad.”