Monday, July 3, 2017 Major Loan To Help Modernize Armenian Electric Utility Armenia - A newly refurbished energy distribution facility in Gyumri, 13Sep2014. The Asian Development Bank (ABD) has provided Armenia's national power distribution network with an $80 million loan designed to further cut its substantial losses and make electricity supplies in the country more reliable. "The investment will help the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) improve private sector electricity distribution in Armenia by reducing distribution losses from around 10% in 2016 to around 8% by 2021," the Manila-based lending institution said in a statement released on Monday. This will be achieved through "rehabilitating, reinforcing, and augmenting the distribution network, connecting new customers and introducing international standards of management and automated control system," said the statement. "The investment program will contribute to the government of Armenia's goal of energy independence and energy efficiency," Sonali Tang, a senior ADB executive, was quoted as saying. ENA had incurred mounting losses since 2010, despite repeated increases in electricity prices approved by Armenian state regulators. The electric utility had $220 million in outstanding debts to Armenian power plants and commercial banks when it was acquired by the Tashir Group of the Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian from Inter RAO, a state-run Russian energy giant, in October 2015. Karapetian pledged to make the troubled utility "much better under our management." The most recent electricity price hike announced by Armenia's Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) in June 2015 sparked two-week demonstrations in Yerevan. They forced the Armenian government to keep the energy tariffs unchanged for most households and some small businesses through a subsidy. The protests were driven by a widely held belief that Armenians are made to pay for widespread corruption within the ENA management. While defending the tariff rise, government officials acknowledged that the power grids have been mismanaged by the Russians. The government stated over a year ago that the new owner has managed to cut ENA's losses within months after buying the troubled network. Armenian Watchdog Decries Vote Buying . Anush Muradian Armenia - Armenians vote in parliamentary elections at a polling station in Yerevan, 2Apr2017. Vote buying was decisive in the ruling Republican Party's victory in the recent parliamentary elections, Armenia's leading anti-corruption watchdog claimed on Monday. In a report on the conduct of the April 2 polls, the Armenian affiliate of Transparency International, the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), said its members recorded 90 cases of vote bribes during the parliamentary race. Most of them were handed out by the ruling HHK, it said. Presenting the report, the ACC's director for programs, Varuzhan Hoktanian, said that other election contenders, notably businessman Gagik Tsarukian's Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), also engaged in the illegal practice. "But if we look at the scale [of vote buying,] it was mainly done by the Republican Party," he told a reporters. Western observers mostly deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said although "fundamental freedoms were generally respected" the elections were "tainted by credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies." In a joint April 3 statement, they did not report significant instances of other violations such as multiple voting or ballot stuffing. The United States and the European Union echoed the findings of the OSCE-led mission, while cautiously praising the overall conduct of the vote. An HHK spokesman admitted on April 5 that vote bribes were distributed. But he insisted that they did not have a "substantial impact on the election results" that gave a landslide victory to the party headed by President Serzh Sarkisian. The ACC report also accuses the HHK of illegally using government resources in its election campaign. In particular, it says, government officials and public sector employees worked for HHK campaign offices or participated in campaign events organized by the party during their work hours. Also, employees of schools, kindergartens and even hospitals were pressurized into campaigning for the HHK, according to the report. The anti-graft watchdog also accused the Tsarukian Bloc and Dashnaktsutyun of abusing their administrative resources in a similar fashion in local communities run by their members. Hoktanian was very skeptical about several dozen criminal cases that were opened by Armenian law-enforcement agencies in connection with reported election irregularities. "I don't think that # that will lead to some really serious results," he said. Hoktanian also said that the abuses of administrative resources were facilitated by the weakness of Armenia's opposition forces. "Money plays a very important role in politics," he said. "I don't mean to say that they are weak only because of [a lack of] money. But those financial problems do exist." Karabakh Leader Set To Extend Rule . Hovannes Movsisian . Ruzanna Stepanian Nagorno-Karabakh - Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, at a polling station in Stepanakert, 20Feb2017. Bako Sahakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's president, looks set to remain in power for at least three more years after controversial constitutional changes that were enacted earlier this year. A new Karabakh constitution approved in a referendum in February abolished the post of prime minister and gave more powers to the president of the unrecognized republic. Sahakian's administration says a fully presidential system of government would put the Armenian-populated territory in a better position to cope with the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan. Its opponents maintain, however, that the main purpose of the change is to enable him to stay in power after he completes his second and what was supposed to be final five-year term in September 2017. The previous constitution barred him from seeking a third term. The new one essentially abolished this restriction. It will fully come into force after Karabakh's current legislature dominated by Sahakian's supporters serves out its term in 2020. Karabakh would be governed by an interim president chosen by the parliament until then. The local legislature will meet to fill that position at the end of this month. The Democratic Party of Artsakh, one of Karabakh's main pro-government groups, formally nominated Sahakian's candidacy for the interim presidency on Saturday. Free Fatherland, the largest parliamentary force headed by Ara Harutiunian, the Karabakh prime minister, is expected to follow suit at a conference slated for Wednesday. Sahakian's spokesman, Davit Babayan, confirmed that the Karabakh leader may extend his decade-long rule. "The law does not prohibit that," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Hayk Khanumian, the leader of the opposition Revival party, predicted that local lawmakers will duly vote for Sahakian. Khanumian said the constitutional change was always aimed at allowing him to cling to power. In Armenia, meanwhile, President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party (HHK) voiced support on Monday for Sahakian's continued rule. Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman, dismissed critics' concerns that it will reflect negatively on Karabakh's declared democratic credentials and image abroad. "Many countries would dream about having a national leader like Bako Sahakian," he said. "For the Republic of Artsakh (Karabakh), the number one issue is security, and Bako Sahakian is the kind of leader who can solve it," Sharmazanov told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Sahakian will also be able to run for president in 2020 and hold Karabakh's top post for two consecutive terms. Red Cross Officials Visit Armenian Captive In Azerbaijan Azerbaijan- Zaven Karapetian, an Armenian captive. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have met with an Armenian man who was detained by Azerbaijani authorities last month after crossing into Azerbaijan in still unclear circumstances. The Azerbaijani military claimed to have captured the 43-year-old Zaven Karapetian while thwarting an Armenian incursion into Azerbaijani territory on June 20. A televised video circulated by it showed him presenting himself as a resident of Dovegh, a border village in Armenia's northern Tavush province, and saying that he works for an Armenian army unit stationed in the area. The Armenian Defense Ministry was quick to deny that Karapetian is a serviceman. For their part, residents of Dovegh said that they do not know him. According to the Armenian police, Karapetian resided in Vanadzor, an Armenian city around 130 kilometers southwest of Dovegh. A police statement also said that he has a history of mental disorders. An ICRC spokeswoman in Yerevan, Zara Amatuni, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the Azerbaijani authorities allowed officials from the Red Cross office in Baku to visit Karapetian in custody on Saturday. Amatuni declined to give details of their conversation with the Armenian captive. Press Review (Saturday, July 1) Areg Galstian, a political analyst, tells "168 Zham" that Armenia should tell Russia that it has no reason to be worried about the planned signing of a new framework agreement between Armenia and the European Union. Armenian leaders could also argue, he says, that although Armenia has joined the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and voted against anti-Russian UN resolutions Moscow has continued to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. He says Yerevan could also rebuke Moscow for not adequately reacting to Azerbaijani truce violations along Armenia's border with Azerbaijan. "Hraparak" that says that Tatevik Grigorian, a 30-year-old judge, is too young and inexperienced to preside over the trial of Zhirayr Sefilian, a radical opposition figure prosecuted for allegedly plotting to seize government buildings. The paper argues that she took the bench only two years ago. "She was entrusted with the trial despite her lack of experience, the gravity of the case, the pronounced public interest [in the case] and the involvement of experienced adversaries: defense lawyers," it says. "The presence of such a judge makes observers want to joke, to ridicule and to politicize the trial." "Aravot" welcomes calls for an armed uprising against the Armenian government that have been made by Varuzhan Avetisian, a senior member of Sefilian's Founding Parliament movement who the led the armed group that seized a police station in Yerevan last year. The paper says that although it strongly disapproves of violent methods of political struggle it finds Avetisian's calls "sincere" and thinks that they draw a clear line between proponents and opponents of armed resistance to the government. "Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that a powerful hailstorm swept through Armenia's central Aragatsotn province on June 29, causing serious damage to farmers in several local villages. The paper says that the damage was particularly severe in one of those villages, Kakavadzor. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org