Thousands of people in our country face the problem of drug prices. Narek Karapetyan, a member of the "Strong Armenia" party, announced this and compared the prices of drugs in Armenia and Georgia.

February 18, 2026 Chief editor: Lilit Muradya Today we would like to introduce to our audience the author of the new ARMnews news and analytical platform, social and political activist, blogger Heghine Asiryan. In recent years, Heghine has become known to the public for her active social activities and bold publications, political analyzes and harsh criticisms published on social networks. His blog was formed as a platform where the internal political developments of Armenia, the problems of state administration, the Artsakh issue, human rights topics and many other issues affecting the society were openly discussed. However, after her public criticism of the authorities, Heghine's public blog was blocked, as a result of which thousands of her followers were deprived of the unique opportunity to see reality in its true colors. We are convinced that one of the most important values ​​of democracy is pluralism, and the mission of journalism is to provide a platform for different points of view. Based on this belief, "ARMnews" offered Heghine Asiryan cooperation and the opportunity to write an author's column. From now on, his author's articles, political comments on internal and external challenges of Armenia, democratic processes, diaspora and other topics of public importance will be regularly published on our website. The editors consider it important to emphasize that for the healthy development of society, it is necessary to provide a free environment where different opinions can be voiced without fear, pressure or censorship. We are happy to welcome Heghine Asiryan to ARMnews and we are sure that her experience, principled position and analyzes will be interesting and valuable for our readers.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the USA refused to allow the production of Patriot missiles in Europe. "Ukraine discussed this with America years ago, in particular, in Europe, in particular, the need to ensure sufficient production of missiles for Patriot. There were promises of licenses, but America ultimately refused. Although we offered production both in Ukraine and in the region together with NATO partners Romania, Poland and others," the President of Ukraine stated.

Political scientist Suren Surenyants wrote about Armenia in TRIPP: an object, not a subject. "Nikol Pashinyan's latest statements regarding regional transport projects, particularly the TRIPP initiative, mainly demonstrate domestic political manipulation in order to hide real responsibility and shift strategic failures in another direction. Pashinyan is actually trying to attribute the responsibility of not continuing TRIPP through the territory of Armenia (after Nakhijevan) to Russia, justifying it with the fact that the railways of Armenia are under Russian control. Meanwhile, the political architecture of TRIPP did not initially assume the involvement of Armenia (after Nakhijevan). If Turkey is building the Kars-Igdir-Nakhijevan railway, openly bypassing Armenia, it is obvious that the strategic decision was made in the Washington-Ankara-Baku axis, not in Moscow. In this context, Russia turns into a convenient external factor, on which it is possible to place the responsibility of its own negotiation inefficiency. In fact, TRIPP in its current format does not imply the lifting of the blockade of Armenia, and this is a consequence of the political and diplomatic failure of the Armenian government. The railway of Armenia is the property of the Republic of Armenia. The Russian side implements only fiduciary, concessional management, which is in no way equivalent to sovereign control. There is no example in international practice where a large infrastructure or transport project is rejected solely because the given infrastructure is managed by a third country company. If that factor were really decisive, dozens of interstate routes in the world would simply not work. Therefore, the circumstance of the Russian administration cannot be considered as a real "weighty" reason. At most, it is a retrospective justification for a political decision that has already been made.

Today I saw a weak prime minister who is afraid that he will lose. Pashinyan already knows that Samvel Karapetyan will be the next Prime Minister of Armenia and is trying to find ways to prevent it. But it will not help him because Samvel Karapetyan will become the prime minister and Armenia will be strong. Narek Karapetyan, member of the "Strong Armenia" party, coordinator of the "Our way" popular movement, wrote about this on his Facebook page. "We need a big win to implement the big changes that Armenia needs: 300,000 new jobs, 20,000 affordable housing units, guaranteed crop supplies, 0% tax for small businesses, lower prices of medicines and basic necessities. Pashinyan feels so weak and is so afraid of Samvel Karapetyan that he does not give him the opportunity to speak. Otherwise, he would have answered him like this," he wrote.

If the deal we concluded is not sufficiently fair and beneficial, then very difficult times will begin for Iran, US President Donald Trump said. "We must sign an agreement, otherwise it will be very difficult for Iran. I will talk to the Iranians. If we can't come to an agreement with them, we will go to the second round. The second round will be really tough for them. I don't aspire to that," said Trump.

Mexico has suspended oil supplies to Cuba due to threats of tariffs from the United States, but will continue to send humanitarian aid, President Claudia Sheinbaum said. This was announced by the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Don't give a third chance to those who have failed twice, stated Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the "Our way" movement, talking about Pashinyan and his promises. "8 years ago, a man who gave us very good promises became the leader of our country. The main promise is that Artsakh will be safe, poverty will be completely overcome, and salaries will be greatly increased. Whatever you say, he made a promise. Nothing remained of the promised security, we had 3 wars, we did not overcome poverty. In 2021, he started making promises again. He said: 2-3 years were a bit problematic, but now I will fix everything. He said: I will overcome poverty one more time, our people said: OK, we believed, we believed in that promise too. After 5 years, he speaks again. Even now he says there will be peace."