Armenian minister denies telecom firm to be sold to Russians

Yerkir website
13 Jul 06

Yerevan, 13 July: Armenia cannot hand over the ArmenTel company
to Russia, because 90 per cent of its shares belong to the Greek
company OTE, the Armenian defence minister and co-chairman of the
Armenian-Russian intergovernment commission on economic cooperation,
Serzh Sarkisyan, said at a news conference on 12 July.

Noting the participation of some companies in a competition to buy
ArmenTel shares, the minister denied the report that Armenia is going
to hand over ArmenTel to Russia’s largest mobile operator Mobile
TeleSystems (MTS), which is a part of the AFK Sistema financial
corporation.

According to the same report, the AFK Sistema financial corporation
is obliged to put into operation the Mars plant that was handed over
to Russia within the framework of the property-for-debt programme.

In turn, the Russian co-chairman of the Armenian-Russian
intergovernment commission and Russian transport minister, Igor
Levitin, noted that the AFK Sistema financial corporation intends to
take over the Mars plant in the long-term. He also said that at the
moment, the Russian government is discussing the issue of handing
over the Mars plant to the AFK Sistema financial corporation.