Alexei Shevtsov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, specifically reacted to statements made by Alen Simonian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, in response to Moscow’s threats to sharply raise the price of Russian gas supplied to the South Caucasus nation. Simonian told reporters last week that Yerevan is planning to import gas “from all possible places,” including Azerbaijan, Iran and even Turkey.

“The price of gas is not only dollar-denominated but also political, and Armenia will no longer be dependent on a single pipeline,” said the longtime political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

“Under any of the listed options, gas would cost significantly more than the gas purchased from Russia on preferential terms, terms that have played a major role in enabling Armenia to achieve economic stability and growth in recent years,” countered Shevtsov.

Armenia imported 2.2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas last year, compared with less than 500 million cubic meters supplied by neighboring Iran. According to Armenian energy experts, the Iranian gas is twice as expensive for Armenia as the Russian gas currently worth $177.5 per thousand cubic meters.

Shevtsov claimed that Yerevan will also risk U.S. economic sanctions if it manages to significantly boost the Iranian gas supplies. He also argued that Turkey itself is a large-scale importer of gas and that gas imports from Azerbaijan would require the construction of a new pipeline.

“Currently, the market price of gas in Europe is around $900 per thousand cubic meters,” he said, according to the TASS news agency. “The difference compared to the Russian price is $720. Consequently, at these rates, Armenia would have to pay nearly $1.58 billion more annually for the gas alone.”

“There is no doubt that for Armenia, abandoning Russian ‘blue fuel’ would be far more painful than [it has been] for Germany or other European countries,” added the Russian official.

In recent months, Moscow has repeatedly warned that it will end its gas price discount if Yerevan continues to strive for membership in the European Union. Pashinian said on September 11 that his government intends to find alternative sources of gas supply even if Armenians have to pay a higher price for them.

By contrast, the governor of the Armenian Central Bank, Martin Galstian, acknowledged on September 15 that the price hike threatened by the Russians would have severe economic consequences. Apart from being supplied to households and power plants, Russian gas is also heavily used in some sectors of the Armenian economy such as greenhouse farming.