Government makes “deal” with Russian company to get cheap gas – Armenian paper

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
31 Mar 06

Excerpt from report by Ayk Gevorkyan in Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak on 31 March headlined “Another crime”

Reliable sources say that Armenia and Russia have make another shameful
deal, according to which the fifth block of the Razdan power plant
and the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will be handed over to Russia
[for management]. This took place to avoid a hike of the Russian
gas price for Armenia. The [Russian company] Gazprom delegation has
been in Armenia since yesterday [30 March], and this [deal] confirms
[Armenian Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan’s statement that the gas
price will hike not that much as has been predicted.

The price for Russian gas remains the same on the [Armenian] border:
110 dollars per 1,000 cu.m. But the cost of the fifth block of the
Razdan power plant for the Russians will be almost equal to the hike
of the gas price. That is to say, Armenia sells the power plant’s
fifth block to Gazprom free of charge. Over a certain period, Gazprom
does not pay [for the fifth block] and sells gas cheaper than it was
predicted. As our source from the [Armenian] Energy Ministry says,
the figures will be finally settled in several days, and the fifth
block will be handed over to Russians for 250m dollars.

This is simply shameful as Armenia has been planning to reach an
agreement with Iran regarding the exploitation of the fifth block
of the Razdan power plant, according to which Iran would allocate a
150m-dollar credit for new equipment at the power plant and Armenia
would repay the credit with electricity produced by the fifth block. In
that case, the fifth bloc would remain Armenia’s property. [Passage
omitted: reiteration]

But now we give our property to Russia for having cheap gas during two
and a half years. Iran has also been planning to allocate a 400m-dollar
credit for the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and the construction of a
new high-voltage Iran-Armenia power line without gaining the right
for property. All these projects are annulled now.

Theoretically, Iran may obstruct this deal with Gazprom, but in
fact, it would hardly do this. According to certain information,
Iran has agreed to stay neutral so that in future Russia not hinder
the fulfilment of Iran’s nuclear programme.

The agreement with Russians again shows that our authorities are
unprincipled and populist. The point is that the aforesaid two and a
half years come to an end precisely when [Armenian President Robert]
Kocharyan’s presidential term expires.