Thursday, Yerevan Approves First Deal With Russian-Armenian Investors . Emil Danielyan Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (R) and Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetian announce the creation of a Russian-Armenian investment fund in Yerevan, 25Mar2017. An investment fund set up recently by wealthy Russian entrepreneurs of Armenian descent plans to build a major hydroelectric plant in Armenia in what will be the first business project financed by it, it was announced on Thursday. The Armenian government gave the green light to the project, saying that it will boost the country's energy security. The decision took the form of formal approval of a framework agreement with the fund called the Investors Club of Armenia (ICA). "This is the first major project of the Investors Club of Armenia which has been discussed in detail ever since the creation of the fund," Energy Minister Ashot Manukian said at a weekly cabinet meeting. The fund was officially presented in March at a ceremony in Yerevan attended by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian. The latter has close rapports with its key founders, notably the Armenian-born billionaire Samvel Karapetian (no relation). Minister for Economic Development Suren Karayan said in April that the fund's investments in the Armenian economy should total around $300 million this year. One of Karayan's deputies told reporters last month that the first ICA-funded projects relating to renewable energy will be launched this fall. The new hydroelectric plant is due to be built on the Debed river flowing through Armenia's northern Lori province. It will be located near Shnogh, a village 20 kilometers south of the country's border with Georgia. Armenia - A view of the Debed river flowing through a canyon in the Lori province, July 2010. Manukian told fellow cabinet members that the "modern and sophisticated" facility will absorb at least $150 million in investments and have a capacity of 76 megawatts. Power generated by it will account for 5 percent of Armenian electricity production, the energy minister said. The ICA says on its website that the Shnogh plant's construction will take three years. The framework agreement with the Russian-Armenian investors commits the government to guaranteeing that Armenia's national electric utility will buy 500 million kilowatt/hours of electricity annually form the future plant. Incidentally, the utility belongs to Samvel Karapetian's Tashir Group. The Russian-Armenian tycoon also owns Armenia's largest thermal power plant and shopping malls in Yerevan. The "Forbes" magazine estimates his personal fortune at $3.5billion, suggesting that he is the richest ethnic Armenian in the world. The ICA website also reveals that the fund would like to at least partly finance the planned construction of a 100-megawatt hydroelectric plant on the Arax river marking Armenia's border with Iran. The Armenian and Iranian governments have long been trying to implement the project. Manukian on Thursday stressed hydropower's importance for Armenia's energy security. He said the Shnogh plant and smaller hydroelectric facilities currently under construction will raise renewable energy's share in Armenian electricity output to around 50 percent. Hydroelectric plants produced nearly one-third of Armenia's electricity last year. The proportion stood at only 20 percent a decade ago. It has risen rapidly thanks to more than 150 small and privately owned hydroelectric plants built along fast-flowing mountainous rivers. Hydropower is much cheaper than electricity supplied by thermal-power plants mainly using Russian natural gas. New Banana Importer Reports Acid Attack . Tatev Danielian Armenia -- Refrigerator parts of a banana warehouse in Yerevan damaged by acid, 10Aug2017. A businessman who has helped to end a long-standing monopoly on imports of bananas to Armenia reported on Thursday an acid attack on his warehouses in Yerevan. Vahram Mirakian said that early in the morning someone poured acid on refrigerator compressors of the warehouses where bananas imported by his company are stored. "If the refrigerator had stopped working at night, 20 tons of produce would have perished within an hour," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). The 33-year-old entrepreneur said he has alerted the Armenian police about the incident and will ascertain the damage after police officers inspect the scene. Mirakian also said that the attacker did not damage other equipment or steal any bananas. "I can therefore presume that it was the work of those individuals who are not interested in our importing bananas," he added without naming names. Banana imports to Armenia were for many years effectively monopolized by the Katrin Group company reputedly controlled by Mihran Poghosian, the influential former head of a state body enforcing court rulings. Poghosian resigned in April 2016 after being accused of having secret offshore accounts exposed by the Panama Papers. Earlier this year, he was elected to the Armenian parliament on the ruling Republican Party's ticket. Prime Minister Karen Karapetian pledged to liberalize these and other lucrative imports shortly after taking office last September. Mirakian and other entrepreneurs started importing bananas later in 2016. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) claimed in November that it has cracked down on unnamed individuals which it said tried to obstruct a banana shipment carried out by one of the new importers. Mirakian insisted that his company has faced no "artificial obstacles" to its banana imports amounting to 40-80 tons per month. "We were one of the first [new entities] to bring in bananas late last year," he said. "We have continued steadily binging in bananas since then." He also made clear that the latest incident will not force him to pull out of the business. According to the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC), some 40 entities imported bananas to Armenia last year. Katrin Group accounted for 56 percent of those imports, a commission spokeswoman told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Ministers Differ On Impact Of New U.S. Sanctions Against Russia . Artak Hambardzumian Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian chairs a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 10Aug2017. Senior Armenian government officials have made conflicting statements about the possible impact on Armenia of new economic sanctions which the United States has imposed on Russia. The sanctions targeting the energy sector could further hurt the Russian economy that contracted in 2016 and 2015 amid falling oil prices. The first U.S. and European Union sanctions slapped on Moscow in 2014 added to Russia's economic woes. Russia is Armenia's number one trading partner and main source of multimillion-dollar remittances from Armenians working abroad. Hence, fears in Yerevan about the fallout from the additional sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress late last month. "Sanctions [against Russia] have long been in force but as you can see, our economy has already adapted to them," Armenian Minister for Economic Development Suren Karayan said on Thursday. "Right now I see no cause for serious concern." Finance Minister Vartan Aramian was less sanguine when he spoke to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) last week. "I don't think that these sanctions will create the kind of a serious situation which we saw in 2014-2015," he said. "But in any case, they will certainly damage Armenia." Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian likewise admitted on Thursday that a fresh economic downturn in Russia would have spillover effects on Armenia. "Obviously, when there are negative developments in the Russian economy they reflect on all of Russia's neighbors," he told reporters. Kocharian said that Armenia is now seeking to diversify its foreign trading partners in hopes of minimizing g the impact of the U.S. sanctions. Karayan also stressed the importance of diversifying Armenian exports. "In the first half of this year, our exports to the [Russian-led] Eurasian Economic Union rose by 25 percent, while exports to the European Union rose by 20 percent," he said. "So we are trying to diversify our export markets." Last week, the government drew up a priority list of 14 nations with which it will be seeking closer economic ties. The list includes Russia, the U.S., China and the key EU member states as well as neighboring Georgia and Iran. The government pledged to foster greater Armenian exports to those countries and attract more investments and tourists from them. Press Review "Aravot" says that despite its military victory in the 2008 war in South Ossetia, Russia "lost Georgia as an ally and a friendly country." The paper is certain that "this situation will not last forever for the simple reason that Russia will not stay in this region forever." "Many consider this unlikely," it says in an editorial. "But the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed just as unlikely." Lragir.am praises the Armenian leadership for threatening counteroffensive military operations against Azerbaijan, sending troops to NATO exercises in Georgia and stepping up diplomatic contacts with Western and other non-Russian powers in the course of last month. "July showed that taking a more or less tough position and pursuing one's own interests creates a totally different situation," writes the online publication. "First and foremost, it removes the factor of the Armenian side's predictability in the Karabakh conflict, which allowed Azerbaijan to advance its military diplomacy and demands and at the same time bring Russia into the realm of its demands. This does not mean of course that Azerbaijan may abandon its policy. With Armenia adopting a new policy, every gunshot fired by Azerbaijan will damage not only Azerbaijan but also Russia." 1in.am comments on opposition threats to stage street protests in Yerevan if President Serzh Sarkisian becomes prime minister after serving out his second and final presidential term in office in April 2018. The publication is skeptical about those threats, saying that opposition leaders could only solve "petty partisan issues" with their tough talk addressed to Sarkisian. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org