Rumors are circulating in the press that Serzh Sargsyan is going to visit Moscow in the near future. This information is not officially denied, nor confirmed. After the working visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Azerbaijan, in the new light of volumes of selling offensive equipment to Azerbaijan (while Putin was in Baku, Aliyev found appropriate to open the brackets and it was found out that the volume of weapons sold to Azerbaijan by Russia reached four billion dollars), official Yerevan acted counter. It became clear for “Liberty” radio station that Armenia’s armed forces are supplemented by new complexes of volley fire missile, the distance of which reaches up to 130 km. The topic is about AR1A complexes of Chinese production, which are considered upgraded version of Russian similar Smerch complexes, but more far-reaching, where Russian military industrial complex enterprises also participated in the development process.
The moment of disclosures of aforesaid information by Armenian side being accurately selected and precisely calculated, of course, can be considered a positive step to counter Azerbaijani advocacy pressure. But, the message was addressed not only to Azerbaijan, but also to Russia, where the businesses with Azerbaijan were qualified only “business”. Hardly, Moscow become aware of the Chinese production AR1A complexes just two days ago from the Armenian press, but the fact that Yerevan organized the flow of information as a result of Putin’s visit, is a remarkable fact by itself. If indeed Serzh Sargsyan is planning to go to Moscow in the near future, it can be assumed that the agenda in terms of content is going to be very tough and interesting. Armenia’s authorities willingly continue to declare that the EU Association Agreement should be signed, moreover, they even stress that the Customs Union is an obstacle to the signing of the Association Agreement. On the other hand, the Armenian side puts an end to endless debates going on in recent weeks regarding the volumes of Russian offensive military equipment with the information about new complexes of Chinese production missile… That is to say, very interesting topics for discussions are waiting for Sargsyan in Moscow.
One of memorable topics is the prospective of signing an Association Agreement with the EU by the former Soviet republics. It seems to have become a topic of open blackmail for RF authorities. A day before, Moscow has threatened to tighten customs procedures, if Kiev to sign the EU Agreement. Vladimir Putin’s advisor Sergey Glazyev has clearly stated that “this weapon will become a self-destroyer for Ukraine.” Then Glazyev added: “These checks carried a single use character, currently the situation is resolved, but in any case we are going to tighten the customs control, if Ukraine is to make this step leading to suicide and sign the EU Association Agreement.” Russian official has explained why they did so, in case of establishing a free trade zone with the EU an enormous amounts of European, Turkish and other products will appear in the Ukrainian market, which will later be imported to RF, which is not beneficial to Moscow. To remind that a few days prior to this statement, RF Customs Service, without warning, included all goods imported from Ukraine into the “risk” group. Putin’s idea of the Customs Union, as seen, without any formalities, has become a bludgeon with which they threaten the “disobedient” at any moment. How long Ukraine will withstand, it’s hard to say, but depending on possible concession of Ukraine, the expected demands of Moscow from Armenian authorities may also grow.
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Emma GABRIELYAN
