Nikita Isayev: "Serzh Sargsyan's days are numbered"

Today Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan stated about his resignation. Director at the Institute of Contemporary Economics, chairman of the presidium of the political council of the Rodina party, Nikita Isaev, told Vestnik Kavkaza what will happen after the appointment of a new head of the Armenian government and what Armenian society should expect.

- What changes should be expected from the cabinet of ministers? Who will join the renewed government and what will their course be?

- I think that Serzh Sargsyan has reached the point of no return in relations with Armenian society. He is conducting secret negotiations with a large number of Armenia's foreign partners, including Russia, despite the public and public disagreements. Taking into account the matters on the agenda, particularly the Karabakh conflict, which is one of the most problematic for Armenian society, the president lost confidence in the eyes of the Armenian population. And I think that the resignations and new appointments of his corrupt environment won’t return trust in the eyes of Armenian society. Serzh Sargsyan's days are numbered.

In my opinion, his current task is to form a government of national trust and to announce his resignation before the parliamentary elections. It would allow a new political environment to be formed in a natural way in order to conduct free and fair parliamentary elections next spring. After them, the republic will move from the status of a presidential to a parliamentary democracy. At the least, this will allow Sargsyan to hope for the best preservation of the assets, property and financial resources that were obtained during the presidency.

But they have little time. If this approach and evasion of responsibility continue it may be quite dangerous both for him personally and for the entire conflict in the Caucasus – not only in the Caucasus, but also in the Middle East, in Russia's North Caucasus and so on. Sargsyan is here to show political wisdom and to recognize that his political time is over, and he has to resign.

- The former mayor of Yerevan, the deputy director general for the strategy and development subsidiary of Gazprom–Mezhregiongas, Karen Karapetyan, may become a candidate for the post of the new prime minister. What do you think about this?

- Indeed, this person is very respected by the people. But due to the situation where the actual political figure is only the president and his circle, it is not significant now. If "the direct representative of Moscow" Ruben Vardanyan could be appointed as the prime minister, or any other respected people, even patriots of their country living abroad, it could have changed the current state of affairs. But he cannot act this way. Vardanyan probably cannot act this way either, as they understand that these things are political props, and the situation in Armenia will remain the same.

- The media reports that the current foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, has been appointed as ambassador to France, and the president's chief of staff, Vigen Sargsyan, will take over this post. How could this appointment influence the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

- I do not think that it could somehow influence the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The president is responsible for this. The government is only involved in issues of corruption and issues of the economic development of the country. It will not be involved in dealing with foreign policy actions. In addition, even if it had such intentions then it would not have happened, because it would not have united society.