“Responses are good, let them be, but it does not mean that we should reverse nervous to every single response”, – so responded Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee on NA Economic Affairs, also PAP MP Michael Melkumyan, to the question of Aravot.am, referring to the noticeable discontents from the Russian side regarding the “Vorotan Cascade” deal. Expert for the Center for Central Asian and Caucasian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Science, Andrei Areshev, in his recent press conference, has mentioned the deal of “Vorotan Cascade” with the US company as a negative factor. He believes that Russia could have had a share here, because due to the sanctions, the opportunities of Russian companies here could be limited because of the American company. This chance, he believes, Russia has already been missed.
Mikayel Melkumyan does not share this opinion. Moreover, since Armenia’s energy system is largely represented by Russian capital: “Sevan-Hrazdan cascade,” the fifth energy block, Hrazdan thermal power plant and so on, in this sense, the “Vorotan cascade” deal balances or counterbalances this relationship. He also emphasized that in any case the normalization of the relations belongs to the Republic of Armenia. “We have laws on Energy and Public Services, and the Commission is a regulatory body, and all investment projects no matter they are American capital, Russian or another, will be regulated by our defined rules. The Vorotan transaction could not have happened, but if it has happened, the availability of non-Russian capital is only positive. We need to come out of the monopoly cycle, as the distribution networks are also Russia.” The PAP MP also notes that the business is static and dependent on the interests, the same object can be resold several times, bought back, involve other partners and so on.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
