Do you remember that after the change of power in 1998, Arshak Sadoyan talked about “stolen fuel oil” for several months? It was an extremely beneficial speech for the Kocharyan government because it fit within the framework of the propaganda thesis about the “previous criminal regime.” In fact, during the first Artsakh war, a serious case of theft of fuel oil did take place, but it had nothing to do with the Prime Minister of that time, Hrant Bagratyan, nor the ANM. In all cases, corruption was and remains the loudest topic for all post-Soviet countries.
Why is that? The answer is quite simple. Stories about corrupt bureaucrats are mostly related to mansions, expensive cars, casinos, women’s jewelry, and men’s mistresses: in short, a life of luxury. And those stories cause mixed feelings among ordinary people, among them anger at injustice, envy, and even a certain awe (“well, people can do it, they manage to live, they aren’t like us”).
Recently, I listened to the interview of the famous Russian journalist Alexey Venediktov, in which he admitted that, to some extent, under the influence of Navalny’s propaganda, he became obsessed with the topic of corruption, not seeing the real danger caused by Putin’s militaristic plans and, in parallel, the degeneration of his country’s society.
The same situation is with us, of course. Corruption is a favorite topic of the current authorities, although I would not say that this vice has disappeared after 2018. Officials buy mansions as before, business talents “unexpectedly” wake up among the relatives of the leaders, and people related to them win one-person public procurement tenders. By the way, the problem is not personal. To put it briefly, there is no public demand to organize the life of our country in a different way.
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Recently, one of the judges repeated the government’s favorite thesis from the NA podium: we lost the war because of corruption. That’s true, but only partially. Other reasons for the defeat are bad governance, wrong foreign policy, and again, as in Russia, the degeneration of society. I think that in this matter, the present and the former, as they say, are worth each other. But talking and writing about those topics is not interesting. There are neither castles nor mistresses here.
Corruption is, of course, a terrible vice. But, unfortunately, it is not the only flaw of our country.
Aram Abrahamyan
