“After joining the EaEU, the citizens of Armenia are deprived of the right to do shopping from the “Duty Free” shops at the Russian airports,” such a complaint was presented by Syunik Parliamentarian Armen Karapetyan at yesterday’s NA session addressed to Deputy Economy Minister Karen Chshmarityan. He said that when our citizens stay at the airports for 10-11 hours, they cannot buy cheap food from the “Duty-Free” stores or a medicine from the pharmacy. In response, Karen Chshmarityan noted that there is no food in “Duty-Free” stores but alcoholic beverages, perfumes and this kind of products.
In the interview with Aravot.am, Armen Karapetyan countered with the Minister. “Of course, there is food at the Duty-Free stores in the form of pastry, sweets and soft drinks. I’ll give you an example: the cafes and restaurants are 3 times more expensive than the “Duty-Free” shops. An ordinary water is 120 rubles in the shops while, in the restaurants and cafes, it costs 350. Do you see the difference? Not every man can go to a restaurant. This is the point. Let them give a chance to our citizens to do shopping from the stores, the restaurants are too expensive. I do not who is lucky, but there are people who travel by VIP, by chartered flight, probably they do not encounter similar phenomena. I am talking about ordinary citizens who have limited opportunities.
Generally, we recently were imposed by 95 percent to travel to a third country via Russian airports as a transit country. The flights by the European countries are cut down. The minister said that the new measures are taken to increase these flights, and it is very good. Our citizens are forced to travel to a third country via Russia, especially Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow.” The Parliamentarian told why she is concerned about the “Duty-Free” stores and the pharmacies at the airports. “During a transit flight, I have spent 4-5 hours at the Sheremetyevo airport, two Armenian women were talking loud at the pharmacy, they were complaining that the seller was not giving them the drugs, which they were asking for, explaining that they are citizens of the Republic of Armenia and they do not have the right to sell us medicine. I immediately called the manager, introduced myself that I am a Parliamentarian and have requested the medicine, the manager met my request and said that they will make an exception. They did it as follows: they found a Russian citizen and released the medicine by the passport of this citizen. But we cannot always make interventions and do shopping by this-or-that person’s passport. This seems to be a very simple problem, but no, our citizens must have an access to the stores at the airport for shopping.”
The Minister said in irony that no tourism issue is being discussed, the bill on “Aviation” is at the National Assembly, and this question has nothing to do with aviation. Armen Karapetyan’s said, “Aviation can and cannot be associated. The Minister told us to come up with a legislative initiative on this issue.” To our question of whether they are planning to develop a draft, she replied, “This is such a problem, this is not only our task. This is the task of our government and the authorities. This is going to cause serious problems in the future. Our citizens are always travelling to Russia and will always deal with this problem.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
