Russian-Azeri transport cooperation against Armenian “interests” – agency

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
21 Feb 05

Armenia’s attempts to achieve changes in Russia’s regional transport
policy have failed, the Armenian news agency Mediamax has suggested.
In its weekly analytical review, the news agency cast doubt on Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s promises during his recent visit to
Yerevan “to take into account Armenia’s interests” as Moscow will
unlikely quit the “promising” railway project linking Russia to Iran
via Azerbaijan. Indifference to Armenian transport “interests” in the
region does not mean that Russia will give up an idea of purchasing
Armenian energy facilities “to form a chain”, Mediamax added. The
following is an excerpt from report in English by Armenian news agency
Mediamax; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

The visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Yerevan last
week left double impression. If we speak about the political component
of the visit, the participants of the talks did not say anything new
having described the Armenian-Russian relations as “partnership and
alliance”.

As to the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, in this case
Sergey Lavrov also did not go beyond stating official Moscow’s
position: “The solution of the problem should be found by Armenia and
Azerbaijan, Russia is ready to become a guarantor for the fulfillment
of the agreements.” The Russian and Armenian foreign ministers also
spoke about “practically full coincidence of positions” on the issues
of reforming the UN and the OSCE.

This could form an impression that the visit of the Russian foreign
minister to Armenia went off rather smoothly, especially in the light
of the scandal which burst out in Tbilisi in connection with Lavrov’s
refusal to visit in Tbilisi the memorial of the victims who died for
the restoration of Georgia’s territorial integrity during the
conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Lavrov’s diplomatic gestures

By the way, in this concern a question arose among several Armenia
media as to what prevented Lavrov from showing such “delicacy” and
refusing to visit the “Martyrs Avenue” in Azerbaijan where the people,
who have taken part in the anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku in 1990 and
killed as a result of the belated interference of the Soviet troops
into the conflict, were buried? When Lavrov was directly asked about
his attitude to those events in Baku, he behaved as a true diplomat
and not only avoided the answer but also used it to once more
indirectly mention about a complication in Russia’s relations with the
Baltic countries on the eve of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the
victory over Fascism.

This is Lavrov’s answer: “This question has long ago been answered
partly by the historians, though historical research and discussions
still continue. The emotions should not overshadow the necessity to
live together, to solve urgent problems. Any attempt to heat up
emotions around the historical facts, which has long ago been defined
in the relations between the states, only take us away from this. It
is not by accident that today talks are proceeding on the necessity
for the states to once more review their history, including the
history of the World War II. I regard such attempts to rewrite the
history as a desire not to allow the normal mutually beneficial
development of cooperation, partnership, which would be open for all
the European states. I prefer concentrating on topical problems. There
are a lot of them, I repeat. Life is actively going on: globalization,
mutual dependence. We have concrete affairs. Let’s leave all this to
the historians.”

However, today the point is not why the Russian leaders consider it
possible to honour the memory of the participants of anti-Armenian
pogroms and fear to visit the memorial of the Georgian victims in
Tbilisi. We would like to attach special attention to the report on
Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan, during which the latter did not hesitate to be a fly in the
ointment.

Lavrov pledges to take Armenian transport interests into account

The Armenian prime minister openly stated Yerevan’s concern about the
planned construction of the Qazvin-Rasht [Iran]-Astara [Azerbaijan]
railway bypassing Armenia within the framework of the North-South
international transport corridor.

[Passage omitted: background details]

In reply, Sergey Lavrov said that during the implementation of
regional transport projects Russia would take into account Armenia’s
interests and would not take steps that could harm them. He also
promised to inform Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin and the
head of the Russian Railways company, Gennadiy Fadeyev, about the
Armenian prime minister’s concern. Most likely, this can be understood
as follows: Russia takes Armenia’s concern with understanding but it
will not refuse taking part in the promising project.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

During his recent visit to Tehran, Armenian National Security Council
Secretary [and Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan discussed the
prospects for the construction of the Iran-Armenia railway. Last
December, having met the Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Serzh
Sarkisyan described the idea of the construction of the railway as
“brilliant” and noted that if the implementation of the project became
possible, it would have major importance for Armenia. To all
appearances, Russia does not share the optimism of the Armenian
side…[ellipsis as published]

Armenia unsuccessful to change situation in its favour

The fact that the Armenian side decided to make the media aware of its
discontent with Russia’s regional transport policy may testify to the
fact that the attempts to achieve changes in the situation by
diplomatic methods were not successful, and this, of course, cannot
make Yerevan happy.

Nevertheless, without showing desire to ease Armenia’s transport
problems, Russia does not hide its appetite for Armenian energy. Last
week, the Russian RAO UES company [Unified Energy System of Russia]
confirmed that it was holding talks with the Midland Group offshore
company on the purchase of the Armenian power grid.

[Passage omitted: background details]

We should assume that the head of the Russian RAO UES company,
Anatoliy Chubays, who put forward a scandalous idea of building a
“liberal empire” in 2003, wants to begin its implementation precisely
in Armenia. The interest towards the power grids, besides political
implication, has evident economic implication as well. Chubays has
repeatedly stated that Armenia was a leader among CIS countries for
the level of collection of payments for the consumed electricity.
Taking into account the fact that Armenia’s main power facilities are
already controlled by the RAO UES company, the possible purchase of
the power grids will allow to “form a chain” providing maximum
business efficiency.

The Midland Group company cannot sell the shares it possesses without
the Armenian government’s consent. If the RAO UES Company is really
interested in the purchase, it is very unlikely that Yerevan will
refuse. If this happens amid Russia’s indifference to Armenia’s
interests in the region, future protests by Armenia will be at least
strange as official Yerevan’s decision will formally be considered
voluntary.