“We should be concerned about reckless moves of our so-called ally, Russia, which Putin implements in Ukraine. In Ukraine, we have an Armenian community. Even the revolution took the lives of 2 Armenians, not to speak about the matter that if all of a sudden military actions commence, the Armenian community will be at stake there, so as the Armenian capital in Ukraine and Russia will be at stake. The negative effect can be very big, hence, we need to be concerned and exercise preventive actions to avoid appearing in this situation. I doubt that the RA authorities realize the seriousness of the issue,” so commented Hovsep Kurshudyan, spokesperson of Heritage party, in the conversation with Aravot.am, referring to the latest developments in . Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian troops to enter the Crimea, which was condemned by NATO and the United Nations. As said by Hovsep Kurshudyan, what happens in Ukraine, is not just a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, but between the West and Russia, because the West made it clear that it would not allow such development of events that the democratic revolution in Ukraine will end with regional losses. “It is very difficult and complex matter. The danger lies in the fact that it is very possible that Russia, directly or indirectly, involves us in the war. In these days, messages are heard from the United States that Russia will be punished, because Russia is really unable to give any legal justification to its moves. Until now, there has been no referendum that the population of Crimea wants to change its status. On the other hand, there is also the Budapest Treaty, with which Ukraine has given up with its nuclear weapon provided that the countries signing this memorandum: the United States, Great Britain and Russia, ensure its territorial integrity and security. In other words, there are things that are serious obstacles for Putin to implement the actions, which he would like to. Entering Russian troops is a simple act of aggression by Putin, because it is not justified in any way and there is no ground that it is really happening out there for the security of Russian language speaking population. There is no danger there intimidated and intimidating Russian-speaking population. In other words, the Kremlin is taking as a base the statements of some marginal Ukrainian groupings, which do not deserve consideration neither by the Ukrainian current authorities, nor by the main national parties, that it should be punished for not speaking the Russian language. The phrase was kept talking about through Russian propaganda means. Here, I feel the smell of provocation. In other words, they might have organized voicing such expressions by certain marginal groupings and later, based on it, enter troops into the Crimea.” Mr. Khurshudyan noted that now there is also an intimidation towards Ukraine, particularly Donetsk. “The situation is very alarming. This just once again shows on how unwise Russia’s foreign policy is. As long as the Kremlin is led to imperialistic ambitions, it continues to present a serious threat to its neighbors. The outcomes of this policy we feel on our skin. Russia owned all our strategic facilities with a trivial amount of money for debt, and now it wants to restrict the sovereignty of Armenia, on behalf of the Customs Union, establishing supranational bodies, where it will prevail and essentially will make on-man decisions and imposing them on Armenia. Under current Armenia’s authorities, there would be no courage to confront any decision that will be adopted even in reverse to our national interests, both within the Customs Union and CSTO framework. In addition, such outrageous amendments were made in CSTO Charter dated December 2011, and Armenia current administrative regime agreed with it, according to which, our republic is actually losing its sovereignty on its own territory, in terms of various armed movements and the right to permit of deployment. In other words, if a movement of armed forces of any country or deployment on its territory generates from our interests, we cannot agree with it without Moscow’s permission.” In the telephone conversation between the U.S. President Barack Obama and Putin, Barack Obama had intimidated that Russia will appear in the political and economic isolation. To our question of whether in your opinion Putin will give way to these intimidations, Hovsep Khurshudyan responded, “I do not know to what extent Putin is equivalent to this situation. After entering troops into the Crimea, his steps show that he does not correctly calculate the RF’s capability and the geopolitical situation. Today, Russia does not have required potential for global confrontation with the West. Even the 500 billion dollar cushion accumulated from the sale of oil and gas may very soon be exhausted. Today, a sharp decline has been already recorded in the Russian stock exchanges. According to estimations, Russian companies have lost more than 2 trillion rubles in one day, in other words, more than 50 billion dollars at today’s ruble exchange rate. The ruble exchange rate is also dropped by reaching 40 rubles per 1 USD. In short, there is a risk that the flow of Armenia’s main foreign currency will fall down, the transfers sent by our fellow-citizens from Russia. Today, Europe uses Russia’s gas of around 20 percent of its whole consumption volume. I do not rule out the possibility that the Europe finds a temporary alternative resources to gas (for example, increases the volume of gas production in the North Sea), by refusing from Russian gas. The U.S. and Canada already question the appropriateness of their participation in G8 format. With its GDP, Russia has the volume of a middle-class European country. Only the fact that it is nuclear superstate, and accumulated nuclear weapon, does not mean that it can enter into a confrontation with the whole Western world. China has already announced that it supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, it was not accidental. It was a message to Putin that official Beijing is not going to spoil its relations with the West only to protect Russia’s imperialistic ambitions. In the near future, I think, Russia will appear in a very serious isolation. Also, Armenia may also be affected as Russia’s ally. It is also obvious that Russia’s geopolitical destruction does not stem from the interests of Armenia. We will be losing an important regional counterbalance and an essential part of capabilities to maneuvering. On the other hand, with losing Ukraine, Armenia’s geopolitical importance sharply increases for Russia. It’s another matter that I do not think that Armenia’s current administration is able to use this fact for enhancement of Armenia’s sovereignty and security.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
