ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN ECONOMIC PROJECTS NOT TO BE REVISED

ARKA
Dec 12, 2008

YEREVAN, December 12. /ARKA/. No decision has been made on phasing out
or scaling down any large-scale Russian economic project in Armenia,
stated Alexander Zaitsev, RF Trade Representative in Armenia.

"In the course of time, some business plans will be modified in the
context of minimally scaling them down, but no projects, including
the large-scale gas and energy ones, will be discontinued," Zaitsev
said at the Novoti press center.

He pointed out that the global financial and economic crisis has
not yet affected the actively developing Armenian-Russian trade and
economic relations.

"In the future the crisis will certainly have some impact, but the
cooperation is still developing and, I think, will only be consolidated
next year," he said.

In this context Zaitsev welcomed the fact that the global economic
crisis has not affected Armenia because the Armenian economy is not
"yet fully cooperating with the world economy".

As regards the financial component, the Armenian financial sector
is well prepared and, due to a number of measures being taken by the
country’s Government, the financial crisis has not affected Armenia
as seriously as Russia, Zaitsev said.

He added that the crisis will influence the bilateral economic ties
because many fields of cooperation require Russian investments.

About 1,000 enterprises shared in by R ussian capital are currently
operating in Armenia. Specifically, the Armrosgasprom holds a monopoly
of supply of Russian gas to Armenia. The Electric Network of Armenia
CJSC is fully owned by INTER RAO EES.

In January 2003, the RUSAL company (Russia0 became sole owner of
the Rusal-Armenal CJSC, the only producer of aluminum foil in the
Caucasus and Central Asia. In April 2004, the VTB Bank (Russia)
became sole owner of the VTB Bank CJSC (Armenia).