Armenia’s “most secret woman” arrives in Baku — Who is she?

The visit of Kristine Grigoryan, head of Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, to Baku has attracted attention. She took part in the 4th Baku Security Forum in the Azerbaijani capital.

TodayPress TV reports, citing Globalinfo.az, on Kristine Grigoryan’s background and activities:

Kristine Grigoryan was born on August 27, 1981, in the Armenian city of Sevan. She currently heads Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

An interesting point is that Grigoryan is not a traditional security-service official. Most of her previous career was connected with parliament, law, justice and human rights.

Grigoryan has received higher education in two different fields:

– Yerevan State University: Faculty of Oriental Studies, Arabic Studies (1998–2002), Master’s degree in Arabic Studies (2002–2004)

– Northern University: Law (2006–2008)

Positions held

Since 2004, Grigoryan has held various positions in Armenia’s state system. She worked in parliament on legislative analysis and later focused on foreign relations and legal issues. In 2015, she became head of the Department of International Legal Cooperation at Armenia’s Ministry of Justice. In 2018–2019, she served as an adviser to the first deputy prime minister and as an adviser to the speaker of the Armenian parliament.

In July 2019, Grigoryan was appointed deputy justice minister of Armenia, and in April 2021, first deputy justice minister. In January 2022, the Armenian parliament elected her as human rights defender, or ombudsperson. After serving in that position for about a year, she resigned in January 2023.

According to the Armenian government, in addition to Armenian, Grigoryan speaks Russian, English, French, German and Arabic.

A new war with Azerbaijan

The Armenian Foreign Intelligence Service headed by Grigoryan is a new institution. Its main mission is to identify threats and opportunities facing Armenia from abroad in advance and provide the information to the government.

Grigoryan’s statement in September 2025 that military threats to Armenia were “very low” compared with previous months and years attracted attention. She linked this to the agreements reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington.

Cooperation with the CIA and MI6

There are widespread claims that, before taking office, Grigoryan received training in leadership and intelligence operations in the West. According to the information, the training was linked to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the UK’s MI6 intelligence service.

Senior officials from both agencies, including their respective directors Bill Burns and Richard Moore, visited Yerevan several times around the establishment of the service in 2022.

Burns and his deputy, David S. Cohen, visited Yerevan again in 2024. Moore held a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in 2023.

Secret offer from Russia

In 2026, The Insider, citing a source in Russia’s security services, reported that Grigoryan had rejected an offer to undergo training with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in Moscow, instead receiving training from the CIA, and that the Americans had helped establish Armenia’s new foreign intelligence structure.