Thursday,
Regulators Cut Energy Price For Poor Families
Armenia - A newly refurbished energy distribution facility in Gyumri, 13Sep2014.
Armenian utility regulators announced on Thursday a 25 percent reduction in the
price of electricity supplied by it to low-income families.
The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) said the daytime price for
them will fall from 40 to 30 drams (6 U.S. cents) per kilowatt/hour starting
from February 1. They will pay 20 drams per kilowatt/hours during night hours,
it said.
The daytime price for the rest of the population is currently set at just under
45 drams per kilowatt/hour.
The price cuts affecting some 110,000 households were supposed to take effect
on July 1. They were promised by both the government and the Electricity
Networks of Armenia (ENA), the national power utility, in June. Then Energy
Minister Artur Grigorian said the electricity price for the poor will go down
“at the expense of ENA’s profits” and cost the private company 2 billion drams
($4.1 million) in annual revenue.
The PSRC said it decided to cut the price during an annual review of energy
tariffs in Armenia which found a net “positive result” in the domestic energy
sector. ENA did not immediately comment on the regulatory body’s decision.
The power distribution network is owned by the Tashir Group of Russian-Armenian
billionaire Samvel Karapetian. Tashir seems to have significantly reduced ENA’s
massive losses since purchasing the debt-ridden company from a state-run
Russian energy giant, Inter RAO, in 2015.
Iranian, Armenian Diplomats Discuss U.S. Sanctions
Iran- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) meets with Armenian
Ambassador Artashes Tumanian in Tehran, December 26,2018.
Armenia’s ambassador to Iran has reportedly discussed with a senior Iranian
official ways of reducing the impact of U.S. sanctions against Tehran on
bilateral commercial ties.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Artashes Tumanian
briefed Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on recent political
developments in Armenia and his government’s foreign policy priorities when
they met on Wednesday.
A statement released by the ministry on Thursday said they then discussed
Armenian-Iranian relations.
“In particular, they spoke about deepening the political dialogue, developing
economic cooperation in the conditions of American sanctions, organizing
high-level mutual visits and a number of other issues,” added the statement. It
gave no other details.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made clear on December 22 that his government
intends to “deepen not only economic but also political relations with Iran”
despite the U.S. sanctions that have been re-imposed by President Donald Trump.
He spoke at the official opening of an Armenian-Iranian joint venture in the
northern city of Vanadzor.
Pashinian said last month the United States “understands” Armenia’s desire to
maintain a “special” relationship with the Islamic Republic.
Earlier in November, a team of U.S. officials visited Yerevan to explain the
sanctions to Armenia’s government and private sector. Iran was also high on the
agenda of U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton’s October trip to Armenia.
Bolton said after talks with Pashinian that commercial and other traffic
through the Armenian-Iranian border is “going to be a significant issue” for
Washington.
With Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey closed due to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran as well as Georgia serve as the sole conduits
for the landlocked country’s trade with the outside world.
Armenia also imports Iranian natural gas and other fuel. The gas supplies
should increase significantly after the ongoing construction of a third power
transmission line connecting the two countries is completed next year.
According to official Armenian statistics, Armenia’s trade with Iran soared by
40 percent, to $297 million, in the first ten months of this year.
Armenian Tycoon Freed On Bail
• Anush Muradian
Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his Toyota
car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.
A court in Yerevan on Thursday granted bail to a prominent Armenian businessman
who was arrested nearly three months ago on corruption charges which he flatly
denies.
The millionaire businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was charged in early October
with “assisting in bribery.”
The Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement body prosecuting
him, has still not publicized any details of the accusations. It thus remains
unclear whom the SIS accuses or suspects of accepting a bribe with the tycoon’s
help.
Mayrapetian’s lawyer, Karen Batikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service the court
released his client from custody on health grounds. Batikian said the tycoon is
seriously ill and is now undergoing in a Yerevan hospital a medical examination
ordered by investigators.
“He will remain in the hospital for now,” added the lawyer.
Mayrapetian is one of Armenia’s leading real estate developers who also owns a
national TV channel and a car dealership. His company was involved in a
controversial redevelopment of old districts in downtown Yerevan during the
1998-2008 rule of former President Robert Kocharian. Pro-opposition media
outlets for years linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.
Kocharian is currently held in pretrial detention, having been charged in
connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests staged
in Yerevan in March 2008. He denies the accusations as politically motivated.
In September, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) launched a separate
corruption inquiry into the embattled ex-president. The NSS chief, Artur
Vanetsian, revealed earlier this month that Sedrak Kocharian has been
questioned as a “witness” as part of that probe. Vanetsian did not elaborate.
Putin Again Praises Ties With Armenia
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian in Moscow, .
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of a “good dynamic” in Russia’s
relationship with Armenia as he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in
Moscow on Thursday.
The two men discussed what the Kremlin described as “key topics of the
bilateral agenda.” Those most probably included a new agreement on the price of
Russian natural gas supplied to Armenia and the thorny issue of who should be
the new secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security Organization
(CSTO).
Neither leader made any public statements immediately after the talks held in
the presence of other senior Russian and Armenian officials. Nor did their
aides or press offices report any agreements reached by them.
Armenia pays $150 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas under a bilateral
deal that runs until the end of this month. The Armenian government hoped in
the run-up to Thursday’s talks that the Russians will at least not raise this
price. But some officials in Yerevan did not rule out the possibility of a
price rise.
Armenia also hoped for Russian support in its dispute with Belarus over the
vacant post of CSTO secretary general which was held by a retired Armenian army
general, Yuri Khachaturov, until last month. Khachaturov was sacked after being
controversially charged by Armenian authorities in connection with the 2008
post-election violence in Yerevan. Moscow strongly criticized the charges.
Pashinian has been trying to ensure that another representative of Armenia is
allowed to complete Khachaturov’s three-year tenure which was due to expire in
2020. However, at least four other CSTO member states -- Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- want a Belarusian nominee, Stanislav Zas, to
become the next secretary general.
A CSTO spokesman said earlier this week that Putin also supports Zas’s
candidacy. Moscow did not confirm that claim, however.
Putin began his latest meeting with Pashinian by congratulating the latter on
his My Step alliance’s “convincing victory” in the December 9 parliamentary
elections. “I want to wish you success in the realization of all objectives
which you set for yourself and your team to the benefit of Armenia and the
Armenian people,” he said.
Putin has still not congratulated Pashinian in writing, fuelling Armenian media
speculation about his discontent with the new authorities in Yerevan.
In his opening remarks publicized by the Kremlin, Putin also praised “truly
allied relations” between the two nations and growing trade between them. “I
think that the dynamic is good,” he said. “It must be maintained.”
“We will do everything in our power to maintain this level of our relations not
only in this sphere but also in other directions,” he added, referring to the
CSTO and the Eurasian Economic Union.
“We intend to deepen our relations in all directions,” Pashinian said, for his
part. He invited Putin to pay an official visit to Armenia next year.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” cites the Kremlin as reporting on Wednesday that Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will discuss “key
topics of the bilateral agenda” when they meet in Moscow on Thursday. The paper
describes this wording as “quite telling and perhaps even unprecedented for
high-level Russian-Armenian meetings.” “The Armenian society undoubtedly
expects today’s meeting to answer some questions regarding the gas price, the
situation around the CSTO,” it says.
Lragir.am says that Russian-Armenian relations “did not fully reflect Armenia’s
national interests” before the Armenian “velvet revolution” and need to be
“revised” now. “In the past two decades there have been many examples proving
that,” writes the pro-Western public. “Those include the April [2016] war [in
Karabakh.]” This is what Putin and Pashinian should discuss “in an open and
mutually frank atmosphere,” it says, adding that they should make sure that
their mutual rapport is unaffected by continuing “relations between Armenia’s
former ruling system and the current Russian elite.”
“Aravot” suggests that cost cutting is the main purpose of Pashinian’s plans to
reduce the number of government ministries and downsize the state bureaucracy.
The paper says successive Armenian governments failed to forge adequate links
with the Armenian Diaspora both before and after the creation of the Ministry
of Diaspora in 2009. “The main problem is that the logic of the Soviet-era
Diaspora Committee was preserved,” it explains in an editorial. “Events,
toasts, oaths of unity and the like. That was absolutely justified in the
absence of an independent Armenian state. These events may flatter some
Diaspora Armenians but they have nothing to do with independent Armenia’s
agenda. The same is true for the Ministry of Culture.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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