BREAKING A STALEMATE
Andrey Kolesnikov

Kommersant, Russia
Oct 31 2006

Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin met Armenian President Robert Kocheryan
on Monday. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov reports
how the Armenian president got himself into a stalemate and how he
managed to find a way-out.

Meetings between Russian and Armenian president bring as many
unexpected turns as there can be. It can be an utter failure as it
was the case in Sochi last December when Putin and Kocheryan went
to have some beer at the press center after talks and could not get
enough of it because their throats were really parched. Quite on the
contrary, their get-togethers can be triumphal as it was in Sochi in
March when the two presidents first fell out but finally agreed on
a Russian fuel price hike for Armenia.

There is also a third kind of meetings which Monday’s meeting showed –
a time when the negotiators seem to do everything to guess each other
wishes and fulfilling instantly.

Russia’s president greeted Robert Kocheryan and said to him he was
going to meet him back in October in Minsk but something was in the
way. To tell the truth, the Kremlin itself derailed the CIS summit in
Minsk after which Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he
was ready to go anywhere for the meeting, even to Astana. Apparently as
a response to Lukashenko’s statement, a new summit has been scheduled
in Minsk again.

Vladimir Putin admitted that he was disappointed with net Russian
investments in the Armenian economy.

"Unfortunately, Russian investments in the Armenian economy occupy
the shameful third place," he said.

The Russian president must have derived pleasure from the perky word
he used, so he decided to repeat it."

"I’m saying it is shameful because it is not number one."

In fact, it was not worth wondering at the fact or use such words as
‘shameful’. Investments are indeed shamefully small probably because
Armenia has been giving aways its assets to Russia in the recent
years to pay for various services, including those of mediation,
so there is no need to invest in it.

"Thank you for your kind words," Robert Kocheryan replied to Vladimir
Putin and gave a warm smile. "Thank you for your invitation."

At this point the Russian president looked at him with some kind of
child astonishment.

"The invitation that I really have fished for…" Kocharayan carried
on and gave a sigh.

The Armenian president said that "all major agreements on energy
projects with Gazprom are about to be implemented" as "they were
endorsed by Gazprom’s board a few days ago."

Armenia’s leader did not say exactly what projects they were.

However, there are reports that Armenia will be paying a new price
for Russian gas starting from April. Still, Armenian consumers will
have rebates to make up for rising prices. The treaty will be valid
through January 1, 2009 and will send numerous investments into
the Armenian economy as payment for additional issuing of stocks of
ArmRosGazprom. The money is to be spent to finish the construction of
the fifth block of the Razdanskaya thermo electrical power station and
finance the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline which will
be controlled by Gazprom – Putin’s main or even the only geopolitical
win in the region in the recent years, I daresay.

All the aforementioned agreements were fully endorsed after Monday
talks, therefore the Armenian president felt perfectly comfortable
to say to Putin:

"The implementation has begun, and the investment component which
you have aptly called shameful…"

He paused, unable to get out of the logical stalemate he had put
himself into without any help. However, he found no succor with the
Russian president and decided to lay it on the line:

"It will be changed substantially next year – I am sure of this."

Robert Kocharyan did not mention, though, whether investments will
rise or fall – just to be on the safe side.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress