IVANOV SAYS FERRY WILL BOOST TRADE TO ARMENIA

The Moscow Times, Russia
April 12 2007

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday praised the
imminent opening of a ferry route that will open up transportation
links between Russia and Armenia.

The ferry will start work "any day now," the Armenian government said
in a statement Wednesday.

The ferry, from the Russian Black Sea port of Kavkaz to Georgia’s Poti,
is also a second step toward relaxing Russia’s ban on transport links
with Georgia. Over the Easter weekend, authorities allowed flights from
Tbilisi to land in Moscow in what they said was a humanitarian gesture.

Russia last fall imposed a full transportation, trade and postal
blockade on Georgia after a spying scandal soured relations between
the countries.

A landlocked country with its borders already blocked by neighboring
Azerbaijan and Turkey over a long-running territorial dispute,
Armenia was also hit hard by the blockade of Georgia.

The ferry service, able to carry up to 50 rail wagons, will effectively
remove the blockade and "cut this Gordian knot," Ivanov said,
Interfax reported.

Ivanov made his comments during a one-day visit to Yerevan, where
he met with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan and discussed trade, transport and nuclear energy.

An official accompanying Ivanov said no deals were signed Wednesday.