Former  MP discloses how Samvel Karapetyan donated luxury vehicle to  Armenian embassy in London to bolster nation`s image

ArmInfo. Samvel Farmanyan, former member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) under third president Serzh Sargsyan and political figure,  recounted how the leader of the "Strong Armenia" bloc, Samvel Karapetyan, donated a high-end car to the Armenian embassy in London to bolster the  country's image.

As Farmanyan shared on his Facebook page, in 2010, Karapetyan,  already considered the wealthiest Armenian by global rankings but  traveling without a bodyguard, learned that the Armenian embassy in  London was being serviced by an old car. "Then, one of Karapetyan's  friends ran out of cigarettes. At that moment, an embassy employee  said he would ask the diplomatic mission's driver to get them,"  Farmanyan noted.

According to him, Karapetyan went to the driver to get the  cigarettes. "It later emerged that, upon seeing the outdated model of  the car that serviced the embassy, he ordered a new, top-of-the-line  vehicle to be purchased on the spot, asking that no one be told about  it. Later, jokes arose that Karapetyan had bought the most expensive  cigarette in the world, paying at least 50,000 EUR per pack,"  Farmanyan recounted.

Recall, in 2016, the American magazine Forbes published its annual  30th ranking of the world's billionaires. Samvel Karapetyan became  the richest Armenian on the list. And by 2026, according to the same  American magazine, Karapetyan's fortune had increased by $900 million  in one year, reaching $4.1 billion. It should be noted that on  February 12, at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex,  businessman Samvel Karapetyan, the leader of the "Strong Armenia"  party, was unanimously nominated as the prime ministerial candidate.  Parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled for June 7, 2026.