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
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