RUSSIA SAID TO BOOST TRANSPORT LINKS WITH ARMENIA
By Anna Saghabalian and Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Sept 28 2007

Russia has promised to reopen soon its main border crossing with
Georgia and upgrade a new Black Sea ferry link in order to enable a
further major increase in its trade with Armenian, a senior Armenian
diplomat said late Thursday.

"They are promising to reopen the Upper Lars crossing in 2008,"
said Armen Smbatian, the Armenian ambassador to Russia. He said
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian received such assurances from his
newly appointed Russian counterpart, Viktor Zubkov, during a visit
to Moscow earlier this week.

The Russian government shut down the Upper Lars crossing, which
serves as Armenia’s sole overland conduit to the former Soviet Union
and Europe, in June 2006, citing the need to conduct repairs on its
border guard and customs facilities there. The move coincided with
an upsurge in Russian-Georgian relations that led Moscow to impose
a transport blockade on Georgia.

Armenian government officials and lawmakers have unsuccessfully lobbied
their Russian counterparts to reopen the border crossing located on
the Caucasus mountain range. They have argued that it is Armenian
export-oriented companies have been hit hardest by its closure.

Nonetheless, those companies seem to have quickly adapted to the
Russian blockade of Armenia’s western neighbor, with Armenian exports
to Russia more than doubling in the first five months of this year.

Official statistics show Russian-Armenian trade surging by 64 percent
year on year to $225 million in January-May 2007. Armenian officials
say its full-year volume is on course to reach $700 million this year.

Sarkisian and Zubkov said after their talks on Tuesday that the two
governments agreed to help ensure that Russian-Armenian trade passes
the $1 billion mark next year. Sarkisian instructed his ministers on
Thursday to closely work with their Russian counterparts in trying
to meet this target.

Much of the bilateral commercial exchange has until now been carried
out through a rail-ferry link between the Georgian Black Sea port of
Poti and Ukraine’s Ilyichevsk. A similar ferry service, designed to
primarily cater for Armenia, was launched last April between Poti
and the Russian port of Port-Kavkaz. It is still not functioning
regularly, though.

While in Moscow, Sarkisian discussed with Zubkov and other Russian
officials ways of boosting cargo turnover through the Poti-Port-Kavkaz
link.

"The most important thing for us is the rail-ferry service," Smbatian
told reporters in Yerevan. "There is only one [ferry boat] operating
it right now. We must make sure that there is a second one. They are
promising that a second one will be operational starting from 2008."