Armenian, Russian Officials Squabble Over Debt Deal
Baku Today
17/05/2005 22:03
Armenian and Russian officials traded on Tuesday angry recriminations
over a lack of progress in the implementation of a controversial swap
agreement that cleared Yerevan’s $100 million debt to Moscow.
The Armenian authorities are increasingly frustrated with Russia’s
failure to so far revitalize five enterprises which were handed
over to it in 2003 in payment for the debt. Only one of them, a big
thermal power plant located in the town Hrazdan, currently operates
in earnest. The other enterprises, an electronics factory and three
research institutes in Yerevan, remain largely idle.
The issue was brought up at a meeting of a Russian-Armenian commission
on inter-parliamentary cooperation in Yerevan. It was also attended
by Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.
“We are not satisfied with the course of the reactivation of those
enterprises and, more importantly, a lack of purchasing orders for
them,” the commission’s Armenian co-chairman, deputy parliament
speaker Vahan Hovannisian, said.
Tempers frayed when its Russian members said Moscow has still not
heavily invested in those enterprises because it needs tax privileges
that will offset high costs of transporting goods to and from Armenia.
The explanation left Sarkisian fuming. “All of those enterprises are
exempt from all taxes,” he said. “What other privileges do you want?”
One of the Russian parliamentarians, Konstantin Zatulin, retorted
bluntly that the Armenians should regard the equities-for-debt deal
as a great favor. “As for the Russian side, it continues to treat
those enterprises as an absolutely unnecessary and redundant gift
written off from someone’s balance sheet,” he said.
The Russian co-chair of the commission, Nikolay Ryzhkov, was quick to
rebuke Zatulin, saying that the Armenian industries covered by the
deal are “not scrap metal.” “The discussion today was quite tense,”
Ryzhkov told reporters afterward.
Yerevan has repeatedly raised their concerns with Russian officials
in recent months. The Russians assured them they will make promised
investments in all five companies.
