RUSSIA SIGNALS OPPOSITION TO REGIME CHANGE IN ARMENIA
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 3 2007
Russia signaled on Tuesday its opposition to regime change in Yerevan,
with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointedly declining to deny
speculation that Moscow supports Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s
apparent plans to become Armenia’s next president.
Lavrov, in Yerevan on a two-day official visit, stressed the need
for continuity in policies pursued by the current Armenian leadership.
During a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
he was asked to comment on growing assertions by Russian media and
prominent analysts that the widely anticipated handover of power from
President Robert Kocharian to Sarkisian suits the Kremlin.
"The official position of Russia coincides with the unofficial position
of Russia," Lavrov replied. "We are sincerely interested in seeing
Armenia stable and prosperous and seeing it continue to move down the
path of reforms. As far as we can see, the results [of those reforms]
are already felt in the socioeconomic sphere."
"So we wish Armenia success in this endeavor," he added. "We want the
next phase of the constitutional process to lead to the creation of
conditions for a continued movement in that direction."
Kocharian is thought to have enjoyed Russian backing throughout
his nearly decade-long presidency. Both he and Sarkisian stand for
Armenia’s continued military alliance with Russia, while seeking
closer security ties with the West. The Kocharian administration has
also helped to significantly boosted Russia’s economic presence in
the country in recent years.
The Russian minister’s visit to Armenia was officially dedicated to the
15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between
the two former Soviet republics. The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict was high on the agenda of his talks with Oskanian. Russia
co-heads the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe together with the United States and France.
Oskanian told reporters that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar
Mammadyarov will again later this month or early next in a fresh
attempt to narrow the conflicting parties’ differences over the Minsk
Group’s existing peace proposals. "The goal is to continue to work on
the document and to prepare for the likely meeting of the presidents
[of Armenia and Azerbaijan] in June," he said.
The international mediators hope that the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit
will yield a breakthrough.
Lavrov said that Karabakh peace is facilitated by what he described as
the absence of any differences on the issue between the three mediating
powers. "This is probably the only conflict where the interests of
Russia, the United States, and the European Union absolutely do not
contradict each other and the interests of the conflicting parties
themselves," he said.
Lavrov further assured journalists that his country is trying hard
to ease Armenia’s geographic isolation which has been aggravated by
the continuing Russian transport blockade of neighboring Georgia. He
pointed to the upcoming launch of a rail ferry service between the
Georgian Black Sea port of Poti and Russia’s Port-Kavkaz. The ferry
link will be primarily used by Armenian exporters and importers.