MONEY, MUSCLE AND A MENAGERIE WIN POWERTONY HALPIN IN YEREVAN

The Times, UK
May 14 2007

He is a millionaire former world arm-wrestling champion with a
fondness for lions. Today Gagik Tsarukyan is poised for political
power after the party he formed a year ago came second in Armenia’s
parliamentary elections.

The burly oligarch’s Prosperous Armenia party is expected to enter a
coalition government led by the Prime Minister, Serge Sargsyan, the
quietly spoken strongman backed by the military in this impoverished
Caucasus republic.

Mr Sargsyan’s Republican Party won 33.8 per cent of votes followed by
Prosperous Armenia with 15.1 per cent and two other pro-Government
parties. Only two opposition parties cleared the 5 per cent hurdle
for representation in the 131-seat parliament.

International observers called the elections an improvement on previous
campaigns marred by extensive fraud and ballot-stuffing.

The preliminary verdict will safeguard hundreds of millions of
pounds in aid from the US and the European Union that had been made
conditional on a clean vote.

But the observers refused to describe Saturday’s election as free
and fair, raising concerns about efforts to prevent fraud and "the
intertwining at all levels of political and business interests"
in Armenia.

Mr Tsarukyan, 50, personifies many of those concerns, but did
not appear overly troubled by them as he gave The Times a tour of
his private zoo next to his palatial mansion outside the capital,
Yerevan. His four lions hold pride of place alongside ostriches,
mountain goats, deer and 30 pedigree horses.

"I love strong animals and strong people," he smiled. The lion
is also the symbol of Mr Tsarukyan’s business empire, Multi Group,
which controls more than 40 companies that include a brewery, a dairy,
a cement factory and a network of petrol stations.

He is widely regarded as Armenia’s richest man and was among several
oligarchs who entered parliament at the previous elections in 2003
in what was seen as a move to protect their business interests.

Mr Tsarukyan has close ties to President Kocharyan, who encouraged
him to set up Prosperous Armenia to drain support from opposition
parties among voters disillusioned by widespread official corruption.

He remains a physically powerful man a decade after winning world and
European arm-wrestling championships. His muscle-bound image led many
Armenians to call him "Dodi Gago", a nickname he despises because it
means roughly "stupid Gagik". Few would dare say it to his face.

However, Mr Tsarukyan’s powerful physique and business success
also symbolised his appeal to voters to "build a prosperous Armenia
together". His party ran in opposition to the Republicans but both
support President Kocharyan.