Tuesday,
Yerevan Hopes For Russian Gas Price Cut
Armenia -- Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian at a news conference in Yerevan,
.
Citing the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the Armenian
government has asked Russia’s Gazprom giant to consider cutting the price of its
natural gas supplied to Armenia.
In a letter to Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller published by the Armenpress news
agency on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian proposed that the two
sides open negotiations on the matter.
Grigorian argued that international oil prices, which greatly determine the cost
of natural gas, have fallen sharply over the past month. He also said that
economic disruptions caused by coronavirus will significantly reduce energy
consumption levels in Armenia unless they are offset by a gas price cut.
In these circumstances, Yerevan finds it “expedient to start new negotiations on
changing the price of gas supplied to the Republic of Armenia,” Grigorian wrote.
He said the talks should focus on the possibility of lowering that price or
setting it in Russian rubles, rather than dollars, as has long been the case.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian likewise said that the collapse of the oil
prices gives the Armenian side sufficient grounds to seek a price cut. “I think
that we will hold such discussions with our Russian partners very soon,” Avinian
told reporters.
Armenia imports more than 80 percent of its gas from Russia. The wholesale price
of that gas is currently set at $165 per thousand cubic meters. Gazprom raised
it from $150 per thousand cubic meters in January 2019.
Despite that price rise, the cost of Russian gas supplied to Armenian consumers
remained unchanged. Officials in Yerevan indicated before the coronavirus crisis
that Armenian utility regulators may allow Armenia’s Gazprom-owned to raise its
retail tariffs this spring.
Natural gas generates around one-third of Armenia’s electricity. It is also used
in pressurized and liquefied forms by most vehicles in the country.
Armenia Extends Coronavirus Lockdown
Armenia -- An empty street in downtown Yerevan, March 22, 2020.
Armenia’s government has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown by at least ten
days because of a continuing increase in coronavirus cases in the county, Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday.
The government imposed one-week restrictions on people’s movements and ordered
the closure of most businesses on March 24. Since then Armenians have only been
allowed out to buy food, receive medical care or briefly exercise near their
places of residence. The curfew does not apply to a limited number of public and
private sector employees allowed to continue to go to work.
Despite these measures the virus has continued to spread. The Armenian Ministry
of Health said on Tuesday morning that 50 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have
been registered in the past 24 hours, bringing their total number to 532.
“This statistics worries us,” Pashinian said when he announced the government’s
decision to extend the lockdown.
The premier complained that some Armenians remain complacent about the epidemic
and ignore stay-at-home orders issued by the authorities. “The situation is very
risky and I want to call on all of us to take it very seriously,” he said in a
live Facebook broadcast.
“Dear compatriots, stay at home and protect your and your loved ones’ health,”
he added.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appeals to Armenians, .
“The restrictions will be tightened further,” Deputy Prime Minister Tigran
Avinian told a news conference held afterwards. “We must also make the
monitoring more effective. We are therefore going to beef up police forces
[enforcing the lockdown] with various forces from other structures.”
Armenian health authorities have reported three coronavirus-related deaths so
far. In Pashinian’s words, 30 infected persons are now in a “serious conditions”
while 424 others are showing no symptoms of the respiratory disease.
On Monday the government asked the Armenian parliament to allow it to access
personal data from people’s mobile phones for tracking their movements, phone
calls and text messages. This is supposed to make it easier for the authorities
to identify and isolate those who have been exposed to infected individuals.
The National Assembly tentatively approved, over strong opposition objections, a
relevant government bill in the first readings on Monday. But it narrowly and
unexpectedly failed to pass the bill in the second and final reading on Tuesday.
Lilit Makunts, the parliament majority leader, blamed that on the absence of two
dozen fellow deputies from Pashinian’s My Step bloc. Some of them are monitoring
elections in Nagorno-Karabakh while others are in coronavirus-related
self-isolation, she said.
The two parliamentary opposition parties continued to categorically reject the
proposed surveillance, saying that it constitutes a politically dangerous
violation of citizens’ privacy and would not help to contain the epidemic.
Pashinian defended the measure, however, saying that is “not pleasant” for the
government but necessary for slowing the further spread of coronavirus. He
argued that the authorities now have trouble tracing the primary sources of some
infections.
“We are now looking for ways to again submit that bill to the National
Assembly,” he said.
The parliament met later in the day for a fresh emergency debate on the bill
initiated by its pro-government majority. Opposition lawmakers boycotted the
session in protest.
Presidential, Parliamentary Elections Held In Karabakh
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Nagorno-Karabakh -- A voter casts ballots at a polling station in Stepanakert,
.
Residents of Nagorno-Karabakh went to the polls on Tuesday in presidential and
parliamentary elections strongly condemned by Azerbaijan.
The presidential ballot was contested by 14 candidates. Only three of them were
believed to stand a chance of succeeding Bako Sahakian, Karabakh’s outgoing
president who has been in office since 2007. Those are Sahakian’s former prime
minister and foreign minister, Arayik Harutiunian and Masis Mayilian, and
retired army General Vitaly Balasanian.
None of them was openly endorsed by Sahakian or Armenia’s government during
election campaign.
The parliamentary race was also tightly contested, with 12 parties and blocs
vying for 33 seats in the local legislature. Most of their top leaders also ran
for president.
The elections went ahead despite serious concerns about the spread of
coronavirus in Karabakh. The authorities in Stepanakert, which have recorded no
coronavirus cases so far, dismissed calls for their postponement made by several
presidential candidates and prominent public figures in Armenia. They said that
precautionary measures taken by them will minimize health risks.
Critics are especially worried about the arrival of hundreds of election
observers from Armenia where the number coronavirus cases surpassed 500 on
Tuesday morning. The authorities counter that the observers as well as Armenian
journalists underwent COVID-19 tests just before travelling to Karabakh. All
other people from Armenia were temporarily banned last week from entering
Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- A voter (L) and an election commission official at a polling
station in Stepanakert, .
Many ordinary Karabakh Armenians also seemed unfazed by the coronavirus threat,
flocking to polling stations disinfected throughout the day. Each voter was
handed a face mask, gloves and a single-use pen while entering them. Election
officials also wore protective masks and gloves.
With only one or two voters at a time allowed into most of the 281 polling sites
across Karabakh, lines formed outside many of them already in the morning.
According to the Central Election Commission, about half of the
Armenian-populated territory’s 104,000 eligible voters cast ballots as of 2 p.m.
“Turnout is very high,” said Kajik Harutiunian, the chairman of a precinct
election commission in Stepanakert.
“People started queuing up at 8 a.m.,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “In
terms of the numbers, there have been no such elections before.”
Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijani rule in 1991 but has not been formally
recognized as an independent state by any country since then. The international
community continues to regard the territory as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
Baku has always condemned elections held in Karabakh as illegitimate. Its
reaction to the latest polls was just as negative.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said they run
counter to Azerbaijani and international law. “The illegal regime installed by
Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is the product of aggression,
ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination, and it is led and controlled by
Armenia,” said the statement.
U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group said,
meanwhile, that they “have taken note of the so-called general elections” and
“recognize the role of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in deciding its
future” as part of a future resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, meets with the U.S.,
Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Stepanakert, October 16,
2019.
“The Co-Chairs note, however, that Nagorno-Karabakh is not recognized as an
independent and sovereign state by any of the Co-Chair countries or any other
country,” they said in a joint statement. “Accordingly, the Co-Chairs do not
accept the results of these ‘elections’ as affecting the legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh and stress that the results in no way prejudge the final status
of Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiations to bring a
lasting and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The mediators, who regularly visit Stepanakert and meet with Karabakh’s leaders
during their tours of the conflict zone, had issued similar statements on past
Karabakh elections.
The European Union also reacted to the Karabakh elections, saying that it “does
not recognize the constitutional and legal framework within which they are being
held.” “This event cannot prejudice the determination of the future status of
Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiation process,” said a
spokesman for the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Predictably, Armenia defended the holding of the elections. It argued that OSCE
member states had adopted in 1992 a document saying that “elected
representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh” should also participate in
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. “Elections must be held to have elected
representatives,” read an Armenian Foreign Ministry statement.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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