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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 08/31/2020

                                        Monday, 

Serzh Sarkisian’s Former Bodyguard Again Under Investigation

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and his chief bodyguard Vachagan 
Ghazarian (L), Yerevan, April 14, 2012.

Law-enforcement authorities confirmed on Monday that they have launched a fresh 
criminal investigation into the former chief bodyguard of ex-President Serzh 
Sarkisian almost one year after he transferred 2.9 billion drams ($6 million) to 
the state.

A spokeswoman for the Special Investigative Service (SIS) told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
service that Vachagan Ghazarian is suspected of having misused large amounts of 
public funds in his past capacity as deputy chief of a security agency providing 
bodyguards to Armenia’s leaders. She did not give any other details, saying only 
that Ghazarian has not been formally charged with any crime so far.

In a report not refuted by the authorities, 1in.am said Ghazarian could be 
prosecuted for illegally ordering an employee of the State Protection Service 
(SPS) to work as a driver for his wife and forcing six other SPS officers to 
work as security guards at a Yerevan music club owned by him and his wife.

The officers allegedly guarded the club at taxpayers’ expense from 2013-2017. 
They have already been interrogated by investigators, according to the media 
outlet.


Armenia - Vachagan Ghazarian empties his bag filled with cash after being 
arrested by the National Security Service in Yerevan, 25 June 2018.

Ghazarian headed Sarkisian’s security detail for over two decades. He was 
arrested in June 2018 on charges of “illegal enrichment” and false asset 
disclosure shortly after the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Armenia’s former 
leader. He was subsequently also charged with tax evasion.

A Yerevan court freed Ghazarian on bail a few months later, after he and his 
wife, Ruzanna Beglarian, agreed to “compensate” the state for taxes evaded by 
them. The SIS announced in October 2019 that the couple has completed the $6 
million payment. In return, the law-enforcement agency dropped the criminal 
charges.

Officers of Armenia’s police and National Security Service (NSS) found $1.1 
million and 230,000 euros in cash when they raided Ghazarian’s Yerevan apartment 
in June 2018. The NSS said he carried a further $120,000 and 436 million drams 
($900,000) in a bag when he was caught outside a commercial bank in Yerevan a 
few days later.

In early 2019, the NSS secured an even heftier payout, worth $30 million, from 
Serzh Sarkisian’s indicted brother Aleksandr. The money was held in Aleksandr 
Sarkisian’s Armenian bank account frozen by the security service following the 
2018 revolution.



Putin Again Congratulates Kocharian


Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Armenian President Robert 
Kocharian meet in Sochi, August 20, 2004

Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Robert Kocharian on Monday to 
congratulate his indicted former Armenian counterpart on his 66th birthday 
anniversary.
Putin also sent Kocharian a separate congratulatory message on the occasion.

“People in Russia know you as a remarkable statesman who has done a great deal 
for the development of modern Armenia,” read the telegram publicized by the 
Kremlin. “We highly value your personal contribution to strengthening the 
friendship and alliance between our countries.”

Putin has made a pointing of congratulating Kocharian since the latter was first 
arrested in July 2018 on charges stemming from the 2008 post-election violence 
in Yerevan. He was also subsequently charged with bribery. The Russian Foreign 
Ministry criticized the arrest as politically motivated.

Kocharian, who strongly denies all charges leveled against him, was released 
from custody in August 2018, only to be arrested again three months later.

The ex-president, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, was again set free days 
after going on trial in May 2019. He was arrested for a third time nearly two 
months later.

The Russian ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, was criticized by Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political allies and summoned to the Armenian Foreign 
Ministry after meeting with Kocharian shortly before his third arrest. Putin 
continued to signal support for Kocharian even after that. He met with 
Kocharian’s wife Bella during an October 2019 visit to Yerevan.

Kocharian, who is very critical of Pashinian’s administration, was freed again 
in June this year after paying a record $4.1 million bail set by Armenia’s Court 
of Appeals. The bulk of the hefty sum was reportedly provided by four wealthy 
Russian businessmen.

Armenian officials maintain that Moscow’s gestures of support for Kocharian have 
not damaged Armenia’s close political, economic and military ties with Russia. 
The ex-president’s loyalists claim the opposite.



Mayor Accused Of Broken Promises Over Yerevan’s Transport Woes

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - An overcrowded public transport minibus in Yerevan, October 16, 2018.

An opposition member of Yerevan’s municipal council on Monday accused Mayor Hayk 
Marutian of failing to deliver on his promises to completely revamp and 
modernize the city’s collapsing system of public transport.

Ever since the mid-1990s, the system has been dominated by minibuses belonging 
to private companies. Few of them have invested in their fleet of aging vehicles 
in the past decade. The minibuses as well as a smaller number of buses provided 
by the municipal authorities have become even more overcrowded as a result.

A British transport consultancy, WYG, was contracted by Yerevan’s former 
municipal administration in 2016 to propose a detailed plan to change the 
transport network. Then Mayor Taron Markarian essentially accepted the proposals 
in 2017, pledging to replace the battered minibuses with new and larger buses by 
the end of 2018.

Markarian was forced to resign in July 2018 two months after the “Velvet 
Revolution” that brought down Armenia’s former government. Marutian, his 
successor allied to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, pledged to address the 
problem after taking office in October 2018.

Marutian’s office asked Pashinian’s government last year to raise more than $100 
million to buy 820 modern buses which it said would end the Armenian capital’s 
transport woes. In a related development, it called in April this year an 
international tender for the purchase of 100 new and large buses. The tender was 
not completed for still unclear reasons.

The municipal administration announced in July it will buy instead 100 small 
buses and hold another tender for that purpose. The international tender was 
formally launched on Monday.

Davit Khazhakian, an opposition member of the city council, claimed that 
municipality is planning to buy more minibuses, rather than regular size buses 
repeatedly promised by Marutian. He said the bidding specifications are such 
that the tender will inevitably be won by the Russian company GAZ whose GAZelle 
minibuses form the backbone of Yerevan’s public transport network.

“The authorities have told the public for the last couple of years that they 
will buy new buses and create a new network,” Khazhakian told a news conference. 
“But they are going to commission more GAZelles.”

Deputy Mayor Hrachya Sargsian did not deny that the municipality wants to 
continue to at least partly rely on minibuses. He insisted, however, that the 
outcome of the tender is not a forgone conclusion and that Western carmakers 
could also win it.

Sargsian also told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the municipality has not 
abandoned its plans to purchases hundreds of new buses. But he could not say 
when the Armenian capital will have a new and modern transport system.

Marutian said last year that nearly half of some 900 minibuses catering to 
commuters in Yerevan are too old and must be decommissioned.



Armenia In Talks With Russia Over Another Fighter Jet Deal

        • Harry Tamrazian

Armenia -- Su-30SM fighter jets of the Armenian Air Force fly over Yerevan, May 
5, 2020.

Armenia is holding talks with Russia to buy more Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets for 
its armed forces, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said over the weekend.
“The acquisition of a new batch [of Su-30SM jets] is planned,” he told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian service. “Negotiations are underway at the moment.”

Tonoyan, who most recently visited Moscow last week, gave no details of the 
negotiations.

In a significant boost to its small Air Force, Armenia has already purchased 
four such multirole jets at an undisclosed price. They were delivered to an 
airbase in Gyumri in December. Tonoyan said earlier in 2019 that Yerevan plans 
to acquire eight more Su-30SMs in the coming years.

Su-30SM is a modernized version of a heavy fighter jet developed by Russia’s 
Sukhoi company in the late 1980s. The Russian military first commissioned it in 
2012.

Before receiving the first four Su-30SMs the Armenian Air Force largely 
consisted of 15 or so Su-25 aircraft designed for close air support and ground 
attack missions. The Armenian Defense Ministry contracted on August 24 a Russian 
defense company, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), to modernize some of these 
aging jets.

Tonoyan revealed on Saturday that UAC will repair and upgrade four of them in 
Russia. He stressed the importance of that deal, saying that the Armenian 
military had sought it “for years.”

The deal was signed in Moscow in Tonoyan’s presence. While in the Russian 
capital, the latter also attended the opening ceremony of the International Army 
Games and met with Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Tonoyan praised the current state of Russian-Armenian military cooperation and, 
in particular, defense contracts signed by Moscow and Yerevan in the last 
several years.

He also said: “In the area of defense industry there have been quite interesting 
developments. I don’t want to go into details now, but I am buoyed by the 
involvement of private companies in the creation of [Russian-Armenian] joint 
ventures in Armenia.”

One such development is the production of advanced models of Kalashnikov assault 
rifles which was launched by the Armenian company Neitron in July. Russia’s 
Kalashnikov Concern has granted Neitron a 10-year license to assemble up to 
50,000 AK-103 rifles annually.

Russia has long been the principal source of military hardware supplied to the 
Armenian army. Membership in Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization 
(CSTO) allows Armenia to acquire Russian weapons at knockdown prices and even 
for free.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
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