Konstantin Sokolov heads fund for TRIPP route through Armenia
Russian-born American businessman Konstantin Sokolov took over the US State Department’s TRIPP+ Enterprise Fund investment fund in mid-July. As Deutsche Welle English reports, the fund is registered in the United States as the Trans-Caspian Enterprise Fund and began operating with capital exceeding $200 million.
TRIPP+ plans to invest in countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as help finance the TRIPP infrastructure project — the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.
Transit corridor
The planned transit corridor is intended to connect Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territory. The project is part of a peace agreement that Armenia and Azerbaijan signed with US mediation in August 2025.
In early June 2026, Washington and Yerevan concluded a framework cooperation agreement on this route. Experts interviewed by DW believe that construction of the corridor aligns with the US strategy of creating a trade route between Europe and the region bypassing existing routes through Russia and Iran.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Investments in Armenia
Sokolov emigrated from Russia to the United States at the age of 21 and later founded the investment company IJS Investments in Chicago. Before being appointed head of TRIPP+, he had already invested in Armenia: in 2024, he acquired the country’s largest telecommunications operator, Viva Armenia. After the company’s partial nationalization, he continued expanding his assets; in particular, his companies acquired the Armenian division of the Russian telecommunications operator Rostelecom.
According to the Armenian service of Radio Liberty, the deal involving the Teghut copper-molybdenum mine was carried out through a third-party company. The mine has an estimated 450 million tonnes of ore and the second-largest reserves in the country. Previously, the asset came under the control of VTB, the Russian state bank of the aggressor state, after the company accumulated substantial debts; VTB is under Western sanctions.
Armenia, an Armenian opposition faction that advocates close ties with Russia, opposes the TRIPP+ project. Its lawmaker Mesrop Manukyan expressed concern that an American investor had acquired significant assets in the financial, mining and telecommunications sectors within several years.
Sokolov is also a major donor to the US Republican Party and a supporter of President Donald Trump. According to the Associated Press, he donated about $11 million to the MAGA movement over the course of a year. Benjamin Poghosyan, an expert at the Armenian analytical center APRI, suggested that Sokolov’s appointment may be a political signal to Moscow or may be explained by his experience of doing business in the post-Soviet space and his knowledge of Armenia.
