There was an expert discussion at the Armenian institute of international and security issues about the establishment of democracy in the Republic of Armenia.
The institute expert Stepan Grigoryan said: “How can we develop and talk about democracy if the gas price is twice higher than in the market. We are not saying anything tricky. You know that our whole industry is based on gas; we don’t have any other resources of electricity. From taxi services, which use gas for their cars, to greenhouses, we use gas for everything. Our whole economy is based on gas and the price of it is twice expensive than in the neighboring countries. I am not talking about Azerbaijan and Turkey, but about Georgia, Ukraine and about all those countries that like Armenia don’t have other resources. Isn’t it clear that this will make us even more dependent on Russia, that the USA won’t even consider making a deal with us?”
Stepan Grigoryan said that that is why our economy stands still instead of developing: “The goods we produce are better, but I was shocked in the market. Go and see what is happing there. They bring strawberries from Georgia, which is not good because of their damp soil. Strawberries do not like humidity. They bring that poor quality strawberries and sell it here because gas is cheaper there. Have you seen the cucumber that they bring from Russia? It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? It’s 3 times cheaper than our Armenian cucumber. It’s based on one factor. The influence from Russia is so massive that the States thinks over whether there is a point to do business with us. It does not have to do anything with the policy of Russia. It’s a corrupt agreement between our government and the Russian ‘Gazprom’. Break that corrupt relation so that things can change. Have you heard anyone raising that issue in political elite?”
Hripsime Jebejyan
