When we say “Russia,” we understand “Gazprom,” and when we say “Gazprom” and “Rosneft,” we understand “Russia.” Just like Lenin and his party. That country cannot be proud of its computer plans, cellphones, normal cars, or quality education (wealthy Russians and high-ranking Russian officials send their children to study in the “degenerate” West). Instead, Russia has gas and oil, and it produces many dangerous weapons. Those are the ways that the Kremlin carries out its political plans.
The first in that list is, of course, gas. “Gas pressure” is also being used on Armenia, but our country is naturally not the first one on that list of targets, particularly because the number of consumers is modest. Belarus, Ukraine, and other European countries still continue to be dependent on Russian gas, and it’s impossible for this to not play an important role on Russia’s and other countries’ relations.
It must be noted that Armenia’s incorrect policies also play a part in being dependent on Russia for gas. We, on our end, have done everything possible to deepen that dependency through introducing gas in everything in the early 2000s, as well as getting rid of any other possibilities for ourselves. When I say “us,” I obviously mean the authorities. I simply do not want to join the trend and throw more stones at the former authorities.
The fact is that all of Armenia’s leaders- Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and now, I suspect, Nikol Pashinyan are forced to go to Russia and convince Putin not to raise the price of gas, or to at least postpone the decision to do so until spring. The issue is resolved through Putin’s political decisions; that is not “clean business,” just as selling Azerbaijan weapons isn’t. Putin sometimes accepts our leaders’ pleas, and sometimes he rejects them. But when he accepts them, we need to think that he wants something in return. For example, make the Gazprom representative, Karen Karapetyan, Prime Minister. Or, even worse, compromises in the Artsakh conflict. But now, since the leader of Armenia is a reflection of the majority of Armenian citizens’ will, he can be more immodest during meetings with Putin and it’s possible for him to not pay an unreasonable price for not making gas more expensive. I think that we are all standing next to him on this issue.
Aram Abrahamyan
