The United States of America has included in the list of sanctions around three dozen Russian oligarchs and officials who are considered close associates of Putin, Zhamanak newspaper writes on Saturday.
“They, in fact, are contenders for sanctions, included in the so-called Kremlin list, consisting of 200 people. The list also includes Armenians, among them billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, the only one of the three Armenians, who is directly involved in the events in Armenia and who in is also an actor in Armenia.
Of course, the US will unlikely apply sanctions against Karapetyan, but beyond all doubt, the process itself will affect him as much as it impacts the Russian elite and the economic situation.
On the other hand, several months ago, Samvel Karapetyan presented his investment plans in Armenia in the energy sector in the presence of the US Ambassador. These plans include cooperation with a well-known American company, which will become an example of large US investments in Armenia.
The economic importance of this cooperation is not so important for Samvel Karapetyan, as a political component, since it is obvious that Karapetyan is trying to create a platform for dialogue with the American side in Armenia to neutralize risks in Russia.
In this context, it is interesting to what extent this affected the elections of the Prime Minister in April, as well as the role and ambitions connected with Karen Karapetyan, since he had obvious ambitions with Karen Karapetyan’s premiership a year ago, and during the election campaign announced the creation Investors’ Club in Armenia.
It is noteworthy that on the day when the Karapetyans in Armenia announced the Investors’ Club, in Artsakh Serzh Sargsyan made a counter-statements saying he would always be there where he will be in demand for solving security problems. Afterwards, Serzh Sargsyan also participated in the presentation of a $1-billion investment program of Samvel Karapetyan, and the US ambassador was also present, but not Karen Karapetyan.
Samvel Karapetyan, of course, was included in the list of candidates for US sanctions after the events described above, but it is possible that this is aimed at controlling his activities in Armenia in order to rule out any deviation from the reached agreements, otherwise the sanctions of the Kremlin list will also be applied against him.
This is one of the scenario of further developments when it will become possible to stop the immediate engagement of a big business in politics. First it was done in February 2015, with the involvement of Samvel Karapetyan,” Zhamanak writes.