FAREWELL TO PROSECUTOR GENERAL?
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 10:38:42 – 16/04/2012
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev awarded the Prosecutor General of
Armenia Aghvan Hovsepyan for his contribution to the Armenian-Russian
cooperation for strengthening the legal system and legitimacy.
This pre-election award to Hovsepyan is interesting, since the election
campaign is underway in Armenia. The point is that the likelihood
of election fraud is big, the importance of the Prosecutor General
increases.
What does Russia expect from the Prosecutor General in this period
of awarding him the election gift? Does it expect impartiality,
principled approach or the contrary?
Presumably, a lot of things are expected but it is a fact that Russia
is going to establish “direct contact” with the Prosecutor General
both before and after the elections bypassing the government system
and in particular the president.
Apparently, Russia has some issues with the president’s office in
terms of control and scenario of the election and does not trust Serzh
Sargsyan. Most probably, Russia suspects that Western influence on
the upcoming election will be bigger, and the course of developments
will be more consistent with the Western plans and ideas, expectations
both in the political and value sense.
Apparently, Russia feels to lack levers hence it decided to fill the
gap by way of establishment of “direct contact” with the Prosecutor’s
office, trying to gain levers of influence on Serzh Sargsyan and on
the election process.
It is not ruled out that Moscow is just trying to keep up with the
U.S. which has been providing technical and financial assistance to
the Prosecutor’s office of Armenia and apparently Russia feels weaker
in this direction, trying to reinforce its positions and prevent
retreat. But it is still interesting that this is happening in the
election period.
It is also possible that we deal with strategic fight for the
important institution of the Prosecutor’s Office. Apparently, after
the parliamentary elections the process of formation of the new
government will pose before the Prosecutor General the issue which
will be attentively followed by the political figures and poles
of Armenia, as well as by the geopolitical centers. In this case,
Moscow is showing interest by hinting that it trusts Aghvan Hovsepyan
as Prosecutor General.
Although there is no need to rule out that the award is Moscow’s
farewell to Aghvan Hovsepyan since usually such awards reveal certain
vectors of activities when activities become ineffective or lacking
prospect.
From: Baghdasarian