Talk:Ruben Vardanyan (politician)

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The following Wikipedia contributor has declared a personal or professional connection to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view.

AlbertTonoyan (talk · contribs) This user has declared a connection. (In 2017 and 2018 I worked in organization, that arranged Aurora Award in Armenia, which, in turn, was established by Ruben Vardanyan.)

Much dubious content in this article[edit]

Was this article lifted unaltered from a press release written by his office? Most of the content was added by a single editor who has worked on nothing else. Vardanyan is actually one of Armenia's "legal criminal" oligarchs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.242.184.0 (talk) 03:09, 18 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There is a OCCRP investigation about Vardanyan and Troika Dialog: https://www.occrp.org/en/troikalaundromat/vast-offshore-network-moved-billions-with-help-from-major-russian-bank I think it should be added to the article. --Unreal79 (talk) 13:37, 25 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

External links[edit]

Edwardx I find some removed [1] external links useful. There is data that is missing from the article. I deserves place here unless you add the essential information from the links in the article. Watti Renew (talk) 17:01, 29 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ok these were not relevant. Watti Renew (talk) 17:25, 29 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Advertorial Tag Removal[edit]

This article was improved considerably by me. All the advertorial materials have been removed from the article. If anyone wants to contest this action, please feel free to discuss here. Gluconuh (talk) 08:38, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Russian"[edit]

I've removed the descriptor of Ruben Vardanyan as "Russian" in the first sentence of the article since this is discouraged by MOS:ETHNICITY. He renounced his Russian citizenship. Regardless of his apparent reasons for doing so, this generally means that he should no longer be described as Russian. Furthermore, the term "Russian-Armenian" is itself problematic since hyphens can imply ethnicity-nationality, whereas we are only supposed to list nationalities. So, before he renounced his Russian citizenship, it would have been better to describe him as a "Russian and Armenian" politician/businessman, with the "and" replacing the hyphen. Now that he has renounced his Russian citizenship and acquired Artsakh citizenship (whilst retaining his Armenian citizenship), he should be described as "Armenian and Artsakh(i)". Jargo Nautilus (talk) 02:12, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Russia is mentioned numerous times throughout the body section of the article, but it isn't mentioned in the lead (except for in the nationality part that I removed), and it also isn't mentioned in the early life section (of course, it is possible that Vardanyan migrated to Russia as an adult). As it stands, Vardanyan's exact relationship with Russia is not very clear in the article, as the article just starts discussing Russia without clarifying the exact relationship. The article needs to be clarified so that we know exactly how Vardanyan is connected to Russia; for example, if he migrated to Russia at some point, then that information should be clearly explained. Jargo Nautilus (talk) 02:12, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It does say that he graduated from Moscow State University in the early life section, which is located in Russia. Immediately beforehand, it says that he graduated from "Yerevan School No. 35", which is in Armenia, in 1985. So, using my detective skills, I suspect that Vardanyan immigrated to Russia in 1985. This information should be obvious, but it is not directly stated in the article even though it's implied (by the fact that he was originally in Armenia and then suddenly teleported into Russia). Jargo Nautilus (talk) 02:16, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Note: At the time (1985), Russia and Armenia were both parts of the Soviet Union, so it wouldn't have been very difficult for Vardanyan to immigrate from Armenia to Russia at the time. Jargo Nautilus (talk) 02:22, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Article name[edit]

I can see in the history of this article that it was renamed to "Ruben Vardanyan (politician)" on November 4, 2022. Subsequently, it was reverted back to "Ruben Vardanyan (businessman)" on January 18, 2023‎, with no explanation.

In my view, the new title is perfectly acceptable, and I can't see anything particularly wrong with it. I support moving the article to "Ruben Vardanyan (politician)". Currently, Ruben Vardanyan is a politician, even though he has only been one for a brief period of time (from what I can tell). His political position is very important in the relative part of the world in which he is currently located, so it certainly satisfies the NOTABILITY requirements. His business ventures are also important, but his political position seems to be more important than his business ventures. Jargo Nautilus (talk) 02:27, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Article seems heavily astroturfed[edit]

All references to this guy being a Russian oligarch close to Putin who was sanctioned seem to have dissapeared, or the fact that he is suspected of being a russian agent sent to stepanakert to preserve Russian interests from the inside. Along with corruption he has been accused of. Article ready like a fluff piece of a philanthropist with the heart of gold type shtick. Midgetman433 (talk) 03:14, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oligarch or Philantropist[edit]

Hi @Kevo327. You removed "Oligarch part" from the article and added "Philantropist". And left a message: "most WP:RS describe him as philanthropist or businessman, ad sources". I restored former sources which includes Financial Times. And added more sources. I hope we are not going to discuss whether Jamestown, Politico, Foreign Policy, BBC, Washington Post are reliable or not. Simple Google search let's you to find lot's of reliable articles about Vardanyan being Oligarch. I can add more sources if 13 is not enough to persuade you.

For now I kept the "Philantropist" part to have a discussion first. You could also do the same btw. I don't think we should keep Philantropist word there. Most oligarchs do such things in order to white wash their reputation. He was also part of Troika Laundromat. He's close person to Putin and even nicknamed "Putin's wallet".[2][3][4] Aredoros87 (talk) 15:39, 18 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm removing the "Philanthropist" part due to the no response from Kevo32 (the user was blocked indefinitely). Aredoros87 (talk) 11:48, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Biased and outdated content[edit]

I would like to flag that this article is overly negative in tone and comes across as very biased against Mr Vardanyan. The article has no reference to the calls for Mr Vardanyan's release from prominent public figures such as Henrikh Mikhitaryan. Furthermore, assertions that he maintains 'close ties' to Vladimir Putin are at least out of date, if not slanderous, considering Mr Vardanyan's renouncement of his Russian citizenship. Timb1976 (talk) 15:44, 17 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This was reported in multiple sources, in Armenia, Azerbaijan and internationally. The article does not claim it as a fact, it says that this is what some sources report. The calls for release could be mentioned, with attribution. Grandmaster 07:55, 18 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]