Armenia: Secret of gas agreements

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Interest to Armenian-Russian gas agreements is still high. Citizens are concerned about gas prices which surpass the last year price by 30%.

Recently the spring session of the National Assembly (NA) has begun. 49 MPs from four opposition parties (Armenian National Congress (ANC), Dashnaktsutyun, Heritage, and Prosperous Armenia) proposed establishing of a non-permanent parliamentary commission. Two problems are included into the agenda of the commission - $300-million debt accumulated by the Armenian side to Gazprom from 2010, which was kept in secret by the government from the NA and the population. And the second question is why prices for gas which costs $189 per 1 thousand cubic meters at the Georgian-Armenian border, including transit through the Georgian territory, is provided for customers in Armenia for $393.

The opposition activists plan that the commission would be a body of control over governmental actions in the sphere of signing criminal contracts, according to them.

The opposition tried to persuade the parliamentary majority (the Republican Party of Armenia and the Rule of Law) that the commission will release them from responsibility. In the opposite case, the majority will have to take responsibility for multiple increase of prices from 2009, which was kept in secret from citizens, for 31 protocols which were signed by the government and the Russian side and registered the chronicle of price increases, non-payment of debts and fees.

However, the parliamentary majority didn’t present any serious argument again. The head of RPA fraction, Galust Saakyan, stated: “Many of speeches on the topic were acrimonious and slander.” A member of the Rule of Law Mger Shakhgeldyan said that for him Armenian-Russian strategic relations are of high priority.

On February 5th the NA rejected the proposal of the opposition on establishing the commission – 58 “cons”, 44 “pros”, 3 abstainers. According to the opposition, the authorities didn’t want to establish the commission, as a shadow bargain is hidden behind the gas agreements. “If the government has nothing to be afraid of and it thinks that it was legal, why didn’t the majority vote for the commission? The Republicans should realize that boycott of our proposal proves that they have something to hide,” Naira Zograbyan, Secretary of the fraction of Prosperous Armenia, is sure.

Representatives of the authorities didn’t give a clear answer to the question how the debt appeared at the session of the NA. The situation is worsened by the fact that the government didn’t inform the World Bank and the IMF of the debt, i.e. broke direct terms of agreements with them. According to Aram Manukyan, a MP from ANC, on December 23rd, when the opposition refused from participation in voting for ratification of gas agreements and left the NA building, the majority quickly voted for execution of $300 million as a state debt, and later the state debt was scrapped.

Rejection of the opposition proposal by the parliamentary majority demonstrated “unity of will and spirit” in the matter of absolute obedience to the leadership. However, the “firm will” can lead to radicalization of the opposition and the society, especially when people hate the Defined Contribution Pension System.