Author: Emil Karabekian

                                        Friday, 
Armenian President, Speaker Discuss Political Crisis
Armenia -- President Armen Sarkissian (R) and parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan 
meet in Yerevan, .
President Armen Sarkissian met with a key political ally of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian on Friday after discussing mounting political tensions in Armenia with 
his two predecessors critical of the current government.
Sarkissian’s press office said he and parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan 
“exchanged thoughts on the current situation in the country and spoke about 
possible ways of resolving it.”
A statement by the Armenian parliament said the two men discussed the domestic 
political situation and each other’s “visions for resolving a number of issues.” 
It too did not elaborate.
Sarkissian held similar consultations with former Presidents Robert Kocharian 
and Serzh Sarkisian earlier this week. All three men publicly called on 
Pashinian to resign as prime minister and pave the way for fresh parliamentary 
elections following the Russian-mediated ceasefire that stopped the war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10.
Kocharian has been particularly scathing about Pashinian’s handling of the war 
that resulted in heavy Armenian casualties and territorial losses. He has 
encouraged his supporters to participate in ongoing anti-government protests 
staged by opposition parties.
Pashinian has rejected opposition demands for his resignation, the formation of 
an interim government and the holding of snap parliamentary elections. At the 
same time he signaled through some of his allies readiness to discuss with the 
opposition the possibility of such a vote.
Mirzoyan was beaten up and severely injured early on November 10 as angry mobs 
attacked and ransacked key state buildings in Yerevan following the announcement 
of the ceasefire agreement. The 41-year-old speaker, who is a leading member of 
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, underwent several surgeries as a result.
Sarkissian again strongly condemned the beating and said “any manifestation of 
violence” is unacceptable. According to his office, the president also called on 
Armenian political actors to show “restraint” and avoid violent actions or calls 
for violence.
The parliament statement likewise said that Sarkissian and Mirzoyan spoke out 
against any violent methods of political struggle.
Yerevan Seeks End To Russian Entry Ban For Armenians
RUSSIA -- A passenger waits at a coronavirus testing station at the Vnukovo 
airport in Moscow, October 8, 2020
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday again called on Russia to lift a 
coronavirus-related entry ban for Armenian nationals which has aggravated 
Armenia’s economic problems.
The Russian government banned the entry of visitors from many foreign countries 
this spring in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic. A few months later it 
allowed citizens of some of those countries, including all other members of the 
Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) except Armenia, to visit Russia.
The ban directly affected tens of thousands of Armenian migrant workers earning 
a living in Russia on a seasonal or permanent basis. Many of them had to return 
to Armenia following lockdown restrictions imposed across Russia in March.
Most migrant workers have had trouble finding jobs in Armenia since then. The 
Armenian economy is on course to contract by at least 7 percent this year due to 
the pandemic and the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government has repeatedly pressed Moscow to lift the ban in recent 
months. Russian officials have yet to publicly say when that could happen.
Pashinian raised the matter at a virtual summit of EEU leaders held on Friday.
“Unfettered cargo and passenger traffic with the other countries of the Union is 
of fundamental importance to us,” Pashinian told the presidents of Russia, 
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
“Restrictions are especially sensitive in this area, and the creation of 
conditions for lifting the bans on the entry of Armenian citizens into a number 
of EEU member states is therefore imperative now,” he said.
Armenia -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attends a virtual summit of 
the Eurasian Economic Union from Yerevan, .
All of those ex-Soviet states have been hit hard by the pandemic. The Armenian 
authorities have confirmed over 146,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,445 deaths caused 
by them in the country of about 3 million. The real number of cases is believed 
to be much higher.
Pashinian also reiterated his calls for the creation of a single energy market 
that would lower the cost of Russian natural gas imported by Armenia and other 
EEU member states.
The gas price is currently significantly lower for consumers in Russia than 
other ex-Soviet states making up the trade bloc. Armenia and Belarus want Moscow 
to agree to uniform EEU energy tariffs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the idea at an EEU summit in May, 
implying that Yerevan and Minsk should agree first to even deeper economic 
integration with Moscow which would result in a “single budget and system of 
taxation” for all EEU member states.
Government’s Resignation Nonnegotiable For Tsarukian’s Party
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan to demand Prme Minister 
Nikol Pashinian's resignation, .
The resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his cabinet remains a 
necessary condition for holding fresh parliamentary elections in Armenia, Gagik 
Tsarukian’s opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) insisted on Friday.
A senior member of the BHK’s parliamentary group, the second largest in the 
National Assembly, stood by opposition claims that Pashinian’s government has 
lost its legitimacy as a result of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“A government solely associated with defeat, loss of lands and capitulation 
cannot organize and hold pre-term parliamentary elections,” said Iveta Tonoyan.
“I do realize that the authorities could take that step … and use their 
administrative resources to achieve [electoral] victory and retain power. But I 
repeat that we have only one political agenda now: the change of the government 
and only then the conduct of fresh parliamentary elections under a new prime 
minister,” she told reporters.
The BHK is part of a coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties staging 
street protests and demanding that Pashinian hand over power to an interim 
government tasked with holding the snap elections within a year.
The prime minister and his political team reject the opposition demands. Still, 
a senior member of the ruling My Step bloc indicated on Thursday that the 
country’s leadership is ready to discuss with the opposition the possibility of 
fresh polls.
Both the BHK and the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), the second and more moderate 
parliamentary opposition force, said they have received no such offers from My 
Step yet.
LHK leader Edmon Marukian signaled his readiness to hold election-related talks 
with the authorities.
“If they are talking about holding the elections after enacting a [new] 
Electoral Code there should certainly be discussions because the rules of the 
game must be clear to all players,” Marukian told a news conference.
“I don’t know who will hold the pre-term elections but I predict that they will 
take place after six months at the latest,” he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Thursday, December 04, 2020
Armenian Authorities Expect First COVID-19 Vaccines In February
December 04, 2020
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Vials with a sticker reading "COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only" 
and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo. October 
31, 2020.
The Armenian government has commissioned 600,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines 
from World Health Organization-backed COVAX Facility and hopes to receive their 
first batch in February, a senior official said on Friday.
They will be enough to vaccinate 300,000 people making up roughly 10 percent of 
Armenia’s population.
According to Gayane Sahakian, the deputy director of the National Center for 
Disease Control and Prevention, medical and social workers, seniors and people 
suffering from chronic diseases will be the first to get vaccine shots free of 
charge.
COVAX is a global partnership which aims to finance COVID-19 vaccines to be 
distributed fairly to more than 180 countries that have joined it. It should 
give them access to several vaccine candidates in development globally. Vaccine 
manufacturers and suppliers will be chosen by the COVAX administration.
The Armenian government’s supply contract with COVAX is worth $6 million.
“The first vaccine which COVAX will make available to the participating 
countries is the one produced by the British company AstraZeneca,” Sahakian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It is expected that the manufacturer will deliver it 
to COVAX in February or March.”
“We can directly apply to any other manufacturer and get vaccines from them,” 
she said. “But the cost will be quite high. Can we afford it? Of course we 
can’t. That is why we are mainly pinning our hopes on the COVAX Facility.”
Sahakian at the same time did not exclude that the government will urgently buy 
smaller quantities of vaccines from other sources for high risk categories of 
the population.
RUSSIA -- A school teacher receives a jab while being injected with Sputnik V 
vaccine against the coronavirus at a clinic in the town of Domodedovo near 
Moscow, December 3, 2020
Late last month the Russian Ministry of Health donated several dozen doses of 
the Russian vaccine Sputnik V to Armenia. It emerged on Friday that Health 
Minister Arsen Torosian and his deputy Artyom Smbatian are among Armenian 
volunteers vaccinated with Sputnik.
“He is feeling well and waiting for the next inoculation because the Russian 
vaccine involves two shots,” said Torosian’s spokesman, Alina Nikoghosian.
The Armenian health authorities have confirmed a total of nearly 140,000 
coronavirus cases so far. The real number of infections is believed to be much 
higher.
Armenia Setting Up New Anti-Corruption Body
December 04, 2020
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan, December 3, 2020.
The Armenian government has formally approved a bill calling for the creation of 
a special law-enforcement agency tasked with investigating corruption cases.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet sent the bill to the National Assembly 
on Thursday. The parliament controlled by Pashinian’s My Step bloc is widely 
expected to pass it.
Mariam Galstian, a senior official at the Armenian Ministry of Justice, said on 
Friday that the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) will start operating in the 
second half of 2021.
The committee will be set up in accordance with the government’s anti-graft 
strategy and a three-year action plan adopted in October 2019. It will inherit 
most of its powers from anti-corruption divisions of four Armenian 
law-enforcement agencies that have long prosecuted corruption-related crimes.
Galstian expressed confidence that the ACC will be in a much better position to 
combat bribery and other corrupt practices. “If you have several functions at a 
time you cannot specialize in corruption-related crimes,” she told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service.
Galstian also said that the ACC will recruit not only officers of the anti-graft 
divisions of the existing law-enforcement bodies but also other specialists. All 
of them will be selected by a special commission on a competitive basis after 
undergoing “integrity checks,” she said.
Under the government bill sent to the parliament, the commission would also 
shortlist two candidates for the post of ACC chairperson. The Armenian prime 
minister would appoint one of them as head of the new anti-graft agency.
In Galstian’s words, the commission will be made of not only state officials but 
also civil society members.
Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in 
Armenia since coming to power in May 2018. Law-enforcement authorities have 
launched dozens of high-profile corruption investigations during his rule.
Yerevan Keeps Pressing For Ex-Soviet Common Energy Market
December 04, 2020
RUSSIA -- A general view of the Atamanskaya compressor station, part of 
Gazprom's Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in 
Amur region, November 29, 2019
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian renewed on Friday his calls for the creation of a 
single energy market that would lower the cost of Russian natural gas imported 
by Armenia and other members of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
The gas price is currently significantly lower for consumers in Russia than 
other ex-Soviet states making up the trade bloc. Two of them, Armenia and 
Belarus, have said that this puts their manufactures reliant on gas in a 
disadvantaged position vis-à-vis their Russian competitors. They have pressed 
Moscow to agree to uniform EEU energy tariffs.
Pashinian insisted on this idea during a video conference with the presidents of 
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan held in May.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected it, implying that Yerevan and Minsk 
should agree first to even deeper economic integration with Moscow which would 
result in a “single budget and system of taxation” for all EEU member states. 
Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian indicated afterwards that Yerevan 
is not prepared for such integration.
Pashinian again made a case for “the formation of common markets for oil, oil 
products and gas” on Friday when he spoke at a virtual meeting of the prime 
ministers of Russia and the four other EEU member states.
“We emphasize the need to look for a joint solution and final settlement of the 
issue of forming a common gas market,” he said.
Pashinian’s government tried unsuccessfully this spring to get Russia’s Gazprom 
monopoly to cut the price of Russian gas delivered to Armenia. It pointed to a 
collapse in global energy prices resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The gas prices for Armenian households and corporate consumers actually rose by 
an average of about 5 percent in July. Armenian utility regulators argued that 
they had remained unchanged since a Gazprom raised its wholesale price for 
Armenia by 10 percent in January 2019.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.