Thursday, Pashinian Blasts Unannounced Russian Drill (UPDATED) • Karlen Aslanian Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 19 July 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday strongly condemned Russian troops stationed in Armenia for holding an apparently unannounced military exercise that caused panic in an Armenian village. “That was an inadmissible incident,” Pashinian said at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “I regard that as a provocation against friendly Russian-Armenian relations and a provocation against Armenia’s sovereignty. I think that the guilty individuals must be held accountable.” Amateur video posted on social media showed chaotic scenes in Panik, a village in the northwestern Shirak province, on Tuesday, with local resident terrified by the sound of gunfire and explosions. Some of them angrily confronted Russian soldiers training very close to village houses, demanding explanations. The soldiers stopped the exercise as a result. They are part of a Russian military base headquartered in the nearby city of Gyumri. The commander of the base, Colonel Vladimir Yelkanov, and his deputy Alexey Polyukhovich apologized for the incident on Wednesday at separate emergency meetings held with Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan and Shirak’s governor respectively. They said that the Russian military launched an internal inquiry. Pashinian said that Armenian authorities must also investigate the incident. “I am told that the police are preparing materials [for a probe,]” he told ministers. Panik is located very close to one of the two shooting grounds used by the Russian base. Local residents say that the scandalous drill was held within the administrative boundaries of the village. Pashinian’s strong reaction was criticized as disproportionate by Armen Ashotian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations and a senior member of the former ruling Republican Party (HHK). “Any infringement of Armenia’s sovereignty is undoubtedly unacceptable,” Ashotian wrote on Facebook. “But this incident did not constitute one.” “It is not comprehensible what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s sharp assessment given at the government meeting was aimed at, considering the apologies and regrets that were voiced by the Russian military base yesterday,” he said. Warning of serious damage to Russian-Armenian relations, Ashotian added that Yerevan should now scramble to “freeze this dangerous process through diplomatic channels.” Armenian Security Chief Eyes Top Football Role • Karlen Aslanian Armenia - Artur Vanetsian, director of the National Security Service (NSS), speaks to journalists in Yerevan, 18 June 2018. The chief of Armenia’s most powerful security service, Artur Vanetsian, admitted on Thursday his desire to also run the national Football Federation (FFA) currently headed by a reputedly violent businessman. “I love football,” Vanetsian told reporters. “I have no final decision on taking up the post of federation chairman but won’t make secret of having such a desire and thinking in that direction.” “I am ready to run [for the post of FFA chairman,]” said the recently appointed director of the National Security Service (NSS), the former Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB. “Time will tell whether or not I will get elected.” The FFA has been managed by Ruben Hayrapetian, a wealthy businessman linked to Armenia’s former government, for the last 16 years. The 55-year-old better known as “Nemets Rubo” has long been dogged by controversy resulting from his reportedly violent conduct. As recently as in August 2015, he avoided prosecution despite admitting that he beat up another entrepreneur. In 2012, Hayrapetian was forced to step down as parliament deputy representing the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) following a brutal attack on several army medics who dined at a Yerevan restaurant owned by his family. One of them died while two others were seriously injured after arguing with men working for Hayrapetian. Armenia - Ruben Hayrapetian, chairman of the Football Federation of Armenia, hands an award to national team captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan in Yerevan, 22 March, 2018. In recent years, Hayrapetian has faced growing calls to resign from angry fans holding him responsible for the poor performance of the national football team. The pressure on him grew further following mass protests that led to the resignation of Armenia’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian, in April. Hayrapetian continued to publicly refuse to quit until this week. He said on Tuesday that he will step aside if Vanetsian is nominated as a candidate in the next election of FFA chairman slated for September. Vanetsian, 38, insisted that the NSS has not raided any businesses owned by Hayrapetian in recent weeks. Nor has it threatened to conduct such audits if the embattled FFA chairman refuses to step down, he said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who harshly criticized Hayrapetian when he launched the street protests in April, spoke of “inevitable changes” in Armenian football on Sunday. Earlier this month, Pashinian made a point of watching together with Vanetsian a football game in Yerevan between retired European and South American soccer stars. Iran-Armenia Rail Link Still Long Way Off, Says Minister • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia/Iran - The Arax river separating Armenia and Iran. An expensive railway connecting Armenia to neighboring Iran will not be constructed anytime soon, Transport and Communications Minister Ashot Hakobian acknowledged on Thursday. The Armenian and Iranian governments have discussed the extremely ambitious project since the early 2000s. Shortly after taking office in 2008, then President Serzh Sarkisian announced that work on the rail link will get underway in the next few years. However, his administration failed to attract an estimated $3.5 billion needed for building the 305-kilometer-long Armenian section of the railway that would mainly pass through the mountainous Syunik province. In January 2017, it decided to dissolve a state-owned company that was supposed to oversee the planned construction. According to Hakobian, the project is not a top priority for Armenia’s new government because of its very high cost exceeding the entire Armenian state budget for this year. “As things stand now, that idea is just a goal, there is no [concrete] project,” the minister told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “There have been studies showing that the construction of that railway would cost a lot of money. Therefore, it’s not part of our short-term plans at the moment.” “The idea is good and, depending on the country’s development, if we can afford it in the future we could go for it,” he said. “But it is not topical now.” According to official Armenian statistics, Armenian-Iranian trade stood at a modest $263 million last year. Iran also serves as a transit route for Armenia’s much greater trade with China. Yerevan Hospital Accused Of Fraud • Artak Hambardzumian Armenia - Health Minister Arsen Torosian speaks to journalists in Yerevan, 19 July, 2018 Health Minister Arsen Torosian on Thursday accused a hospital in Yerevan run by a relative of former President Serzh Sarkisian of engaging in fraudulent practices that cost the state at least 300 million drams ($620,000). Torosian said an audit of the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center conducted by his ministry found that its management embezzled government funds allocated for free examinations and treatment of civil servants. “The bulk of the violations had to do with sums charged for patients who were actually not treated,” he told reporters. “Patients were not hospitalized, did not receive medical aid but the state was still charged [by the hospital.] As of now, 300 million drams worth of such cases have already been detected.” Torosian said the Ministry of Health has already asked prosecutors to look into the allegations and decide whether they warrant a criminal investigation. A statement released on behalf of the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center staff last week voiced support for the hospital’s longtime executive director, Ara Minasian. It accused the Ministry of Health of waging a “political campaign” against Minasian. The hospital chief is the father of Mikael Minasian, Sarkisian’s son-in-law serving as Armenia’s ambassador to the Vatican. Minasian enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia until nationwide mass protests brought down Sarkisian in late April. Torosian pledged last month to crack down on the “healthcare oligarchy that has misused millions” of dollars. He said on Thursday that he has ordered ministry officials to also inspect other Armenian hospitals. The minister suggested that they too committed financial irregularities. Press Review For “Zhamanak,” U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills’s Wednesday remark that it is still too early to expect a major increase in U.S. investments in Armenia means that Washington has trouble making sense of the new Armenian government’s economic policies. “Many experts also speak about the ambiguity of those policies,” writes the paper. “Having said that, it is objectively very hard to expedite a quick transition from a highly corrupt system to a qualitatively different economic model until the key mechanisms of that system are neutralized.” Ryszard Czarnecki, a senior member of the European Parliament, tells “168 Zham” that European Union Ambassador to Armenia Piotr Switalski came up with good counterarguments against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s criticism of the EU. He says that EU cannot give Yerevan more additional aid “without knowing this government’s ambitions.” Czarnecki welcomes the announcement that Pashinian’s government will soon propose concrete projects which it believes require EU funding. Commenting on Pashinian’s criticism of the EU, “Aravot” says that his diehard supporters in Armenia must realize that he is no longer a parliament deputy or a journalist who can always speak his mind. “He is the country’s number one leader who implements its foreign policy vis-à-vis his foreign partners,” editorializes the paper. “The priorities of that policy have to be clearly formulated. And no matter how popular he is at home, the prime minister cannot answer all questions only through his intuition.” “Haykakan Zhamanak” says that unlike other state institutions Armenia’s courts have been largely unaffected by the recent “velvet revolution.” “The only thing that has changed there is that the judicial system no longer receives instructions from the presidential palace and has to act independently,” writes the paper. “That is certainly a necessary but not sufficient condition for having a normal judicial system.” (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org