Rosbalt, 14/04/2004, 13:04
With Outcome of Armenia Crisis in Doubt, Russia Keeps Its Distance
MOSCOW, April 14. Russia is taking ‘a quite sober and carefully weighed
approach’ to the situation in Armenia, Prof. Andranik Migranian declared at
a press conference here Tuesday. Migranian is a member of the board of the
Union of Armenians of Russia.
‘There have been no official statements by Russian authorities. And one
would have to be very foolish to make any,’ the professor said. ‘For whoever
turns out to hold power after the current crisis, Russian-Armenian relations
are hardly likely to change.’
He also said ‘it would be incorrect to draw direct parallels between the
current political crisis in Armenia and the velvet revolution in Georgia at
the end of 2003.’ Migranian, a political scientist, pointed out some crucial
differences. ‘The Georgian leadership was less unified,’ he said. ‘So when
the army and police declared neutrality, it was obvious that Shevardnadze’s
time was up. On top of that, the Georgian opposition had an indisputably
charismatic leader who was known for his struggle against corruption-Mikhail
Saakashvili.’. On the other hand, Migranian said, the Armenian opposition
has a number of leaders and was unable to agree on a single candidate in the
last election for president, which ‘very much helped Robert Kocharian to
win.’
‘Finally,’ Migranian said, ‘there is no George Soros with his money, who
helped get rid of Shevardnadze, in Armenia. Nor is the US ambassador so
active in Armenia. It’s known, after all, that the architect of the Georgian
revolution was the American ambassador Richard Miles.’