“We have always boasted that we have only numerous contracts with Russia on economic sector”, mentioned the Head of “Modus Vivendi” Center, Ara Papyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am. He believes that many Armenian entrepreneurs have managed to enter the Russian market prior to the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union. However, according to his prediction, these Armenian entrepreneurs will face problems because of the decline in the purchasing power in the Russian market. “We should not forget that people began to live poor because of decline in the purchasing power. And when they say that no fruit and vegetable will come from the West, and we can occupy this market, know that the Russian market is the market that always has had the requirement for it, in other words, there has never been a situation that we export tomatoes to Russia, but since tomatoes are imported from Poland, our tomatoes was not sold.
What we had exported was sold, even if we had exported 10 times more, it would be sold again. This gap will not particularly create a new market.” He added that by accession to the EaEU, problems would arise pertaining to import of arms and technologies because Armenia is buying them also from other countries. “Apart from Russia, we buy weapons from China, too. Chinese weapon is cheap in price, and does not yield the Russian one by quality. When we import arms, our customs duties are zero, Russia as weapons exporting country has great import duties. This means that either we should have some quotas from the leadership of the Eurasian Economic Union for duty-free import of weapons, or we have to pay duties up to 40 percent.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
