Gagik Hambaryan, a political scientist, expressed this idea during a conversation with www.aravot.am.
“There has been talk about the increase in gas prices for quite a while, almost one year, but since 3 important elections awaited Armenia, the National Assembly election, presidential election, and Yerevan City Council election, only after the current government’s victory did the Russian side raise the issue of gas price increase. If the gas prices had been increased before the election, the Republican Party would have lost quite a lot of votes. Taking into account the socio-economic condition of the people and the fact that there has been almost no increase in pensions and wages – I don’t consider that 2500 drams to be an increase – the people would naturally have opposed the Republican Party’s attempts to regain power more strongly,” the political scientist says. According to Gagik Hambaryan’s prediction, the government will not allow the gas prices to increase dramatically, more than 60 percent, but
will stop at a 35%-40% increase, and the government will present it to the people as the Armenian side’s “victory.”
“They will say: ‘Look, we have increased the gas prices less than the Russians intended as a result of negotiations with them.’ I must state that no matter how much the gas prices fall, this will set off a chain reaction in the economy, and there will be a considerable increase in prices in all spheres. So one can say that the increase in pensions and wages planned by the government will have no positive effect on the people’s socio-economic condition whatsoever,” our interlocutor is convinced. The political scientist stated that this was not the first case when the Russians pursued a purely anti-Armenian policy. “It is funny that the Russians haven’t used quite many plants that they got in the past according to an agreement signed with the Armenian side, the program of repaying the debt with property. A question arises why they acquired those companies, if they were not going to use them for 7-8 years. It is also funny that the Russian side signed an agreement with the Georgians a few months ago, in November-December, reducing the energy prices by 25 percent, but at the same time, they increase the gas prices for the Armenian side. I must state that the Armenian market is a small one for Gazprom, is not of great benefit, because there are very few industrial complexes in Armenia, and gas earns rather large sums of money in big industrial centers. I think that this is a political issue, one of many anti-Armenian steps taken by the Russian side for quite a long time. The Russian side wants to show the Armenian side by this that it is discontent with its close relations with the European Union and NATO.
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“This is another step to make the Armenian side involve in Putin’s Eurasian project, because our government hasn’t given a clear answer yet what they thought of the Eurasian Union, which is Putin’s most important project in the second period of his presidency.” According to the political scientist, it is strange that the Armenian side provides the Russian side with a large territory for the Russian military base without demanding payment. As opposed to other republics, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, and Azerbaijan, where the Russians paid large sums of money to the latter for the Gabala Radar Station, the Armenian side hasn’t demanded payment from Russia for the military base so far. “As far as I know, the Armenian side covers 50 percent of the expenses on the Russian military base. I think that the Russian side could have treated the Republic of Armenia more mildly, and even if they needed to increase the gas prices, one could have increased them a little. And this shows that Russia pursues an inadequate policy toward Armenia; this is food for thought. And it is about time that the Armenian side clearly expresses its position on what should be in the future, because gas is policy, and as a result of that policy, a huge exodus from Armenia may start.”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
