Author: Kanayan Tamar

                                        Thursday, June 4, 2020
U.S. Approves More Coronavirus Aid To Armenia
        • Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy addresses members of the American Chamber 
of Commerce in Yerevan, May 15, 2019.
The United States has allocated $5.4 million in fresh assistance to Armenia 
designed to combat the coronavirus epidemic, U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy said on 
Thursday.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Tracy also voiced concern over 
the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country while praising the 
Armenian government’s intensifying efforts to get people to practice social 
distancing, wear face masks and wash hands.
“Those are things that all of us can do and that I think can help turn around 
the situation we’re seeing right now,” she said. “Obviously these high numbers 
that we are seeing now are of concern, but it’s really the effort of all of us, 
a unified effort, that I think is going to make a difference in fighting 
COVID-19.”
“I’m also happy to say that the United States has been doing its best to 
contribute and assist the government,” Tracy went on. “We have obtained $5.4 
million of new assistance money that’s going in a number of directions to help 
the government. We are also redirecting some of our existing money to help small 
and medium businesses.
“So I have still some optimism that we can recover and be in a better place. But 
it’s going to take a lot of work, I think, from everybody.”
In the envoy’s words, much of the fresh U.S. assistance will be channeled into 
Armenian laboratories and healthcare services dealing with “the most severe 
cases” of COVID-19. “We are continuing to talk to the [Armenian] government 
about the needs that they have, and we are looking at what we have within the 
U.S. capacity to help,” she said.
Washington announced its first coronavirus-related aid package for Armenia, 
worth $1.1 million, in late March shortly after the Armenian government imposed 
a nationwide lockdown to contain the first major outbreaks of the disease.
The government began easing those restrictions in mid-April and lifted virtually 
all of them by the beginning of May. The number of coronavirus cases in the 
country has increased sharply since then. Critics say that the government never 
properly enforced the lockdown and ended it too soon.
Asked to commenting on that criticism, Tracy said: “The prime minister [Nikol 
Pashinian] has been talking about some of the issues that he’s been trying to 
balance, trying to balance protecting public health while also paying attention 
to the fundamentals of the economy. It’s a tough balance to strike.”
“This is something that we are facing in the United States as well and in many 
places around the world,” she said.
Armenian Gas Network Insists On Higher Prices
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - The Gazprom Armenia headquarters in Yerevan, 31Oct2014.
Armenia’s Russian-owned national gas distribution company defended on Thursday 
higher tariffs sought by it, saying that state regulators’ refusal to approve 
them would put continued supplies of Russian gas to the country at risk.
The company controlled by Russia’s Gazprom formally asked the Public Services 
Regulatory Commission (PSRC) on April 1 to allow it to raise its retail prices 
by an average of 11 percent.
The Gazprom Armenia network argued that the cost of Russian gas supplied to 
Armenian households and corporate consumer has remained unchanged since Gazprom 
raised its wholesale price for Armenia from $150 to $165 per thousand cubic 
meters in January 2019. The network has incurred major losses as a result.
The PSRC proposed on Monday that Gazprom Armenia settle for more modest price 
rises that would average 4.6 percent. It also decided to hold a further 
discussion on the issue with the company’s representatives and civil society 
members.
The company’s chief executive, Hrant Tadevosian, insisted on its tariff demands 
when he spoke during the three-hour meeting held on Thursday.
“If we carry on with current expenditures we will no longer be able to import 
the 2 billion or 2.2 billion [cubic meters] of gas which we have imported until 
now [annually,]” warned Tadevosian. “If the gas supply is interrupted for one or 
two days I can guarantee that we will have very serious problems.”
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said. “I just have to state the existing the 
truth.”
Tadevosian added that higher tariffs would also allow Gazprom Armenia to make 
230 billion drams ($474 million) in badly needed capital investments in the 
network over the next 10 years.
In its tariff application sent to the PSRC, Gazprom Armenia offered to slightly 
cut the gas price for the majority of households, which currently stands at an 
equivalent of $290 per thousand cubic meters. However, it demanded the scrapping 
of a 36 percent price discount enjoyed by low-income families.
The PSRC objected to this demand on Monday. It also urged the gas operator to 
reconsider plans for a sizable increase in gas tariffs set for manufacturing and 
agricultural firms.
The regulatory body is expected to make a final decision on the Gazprom Armenia 
application later this month.
Shortly before Gazprom Armenia requested the price hikes, the Armenian 
government urged the Russian energy giant to cut its wholesale gas price for 
Armenia. It argued that global energy prices have collapsed because of the 
coronavirus pandemic.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin 
discussed the matter by phone on April 6. They apparently failed to reach an 
agreement.
Speaking at a May 19 video conference with fellow leaders of the Eurasian 
Economic Union (EEU) member states, Putin rejected Armenia’s and Belarus’s calls 
for the Russian-led trade bloc to set uniform energy tariffs which would reduce 
the cost of Russian natural gas imported by them.
Court Revokes Arrest Warrant For Ex-President’s Son-In-Law
Armenia -- Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals overturned on Thursday a lower court’s decision to 
allow investigators to arrest Mikael Minasian, former President Serzh 
Sarkisian’s fugitive son-in-law prosecuted on corruption charges denied by him.
Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) moved to arrest Minasian in late April 
one month after charging him with illegal enrichment, false asset disclosure and 
money laundering. A district court in Yerevan agreed to issue an arrest warrant 
for him on May 6.
A bitter critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly 
after he was dismissed as the country’s ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. 
He has declined to reveal his current whereabouts in a series of video messages 
posted on Facebook in recent weeks.
Minasian has said that he is not returning to Armenia because he believes that 
investigators and judges dealing with his case are acting on Pashinian’s orders. 
He has also accused Pashinian of corruption and misrule.
Pashinian has dismissed most of those accusations. The premier has repeatedly 
accused Minasian of illegally making a huge fortune during Sarkisian’s rule.
A close Pashinian associate, deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian, condemned 
the Court of Appeals judge who revoked the arrest warrant.
“I believe this [decision] is vivid proof of the fact that the existing problem 
within Armenia’s judicial system needs to be resolved as soon as possible,” 
Simonian told reporters, according to the Armenpress news agency.
Minasian, 42, enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in the 
country when it was ruled by his father-in-law from 2008-2018. He is also 
thought to have developed extensive business interests in various sectors of the 
Armenian economy.
One of Minasian’s lawyers, Amram Makinian, said on April 22 that the money 
laundering charge brought against his client stems from large sums of cash which 
he transferred from one of his bank accounts to another in 2017-2018. Makinian 
also claimed that the other accusations are based on a “technical error” 
committed by the employee of a private firm which drew up and filed Minasian’s 
income declarations. He said that SRC investigators are refusing to summon that 
person for questioning.
Armenian Tax Chief Resigns
Armenia -- Davit Ananian, head of the State Revenue Committee, arrives for a 
news conference in Yerevan, July 9, 2019.
Davit Ananian, the head of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), unexpectedly 
resigned on Thursday.
Ananian gave no reasons for the resignation when he announced it on Facebook.
“In order to end rumors circulating in the media I want to inform that today I 
tendered my resignation to the prime minister of Armenia,” he wrote.
“I want to thank everyone for effective and production cooperation and Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian for entrusting this important position to me for more 
than two years,” he added without elaborating.
Pashinian did not immediately accept the resignation or make statements on it.
Ananian, 48, was appointed as head of the national tax and customs services in 
May 2018 shortly after the “Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. 
He served as deputy finance minister in Armenia’s previous government. Former 
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian had appointed him to that post in 2016.
According to his official biography, Ananian, 46, worked as a tax inspector in 
the 1990s and ran a private tax and accounting consultancy from 2006-2016.
Ananian promised a tougher government crackdown on companies and individuals 
evading taxes when he took over the SRC. The current government’s tax revenues 
have risen significantly since then, a fact regularly emphasized by Pashinian.
Armenian Minister Warns Of COVID-19 Healthcare Collapse
Armenia -- A doctor wearing a face mask and protective gear gives a call as she 
stands next to an ambulance at the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center in Yerevan, 
June 1, 2020
The daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Armenia continued to rise on 
Thursday, with Health Minister Arsen Torosian warning that Armenian hospitals 
may soon be unable to admit all infected people in need of urgent treatment.
The Ministry of Health said in the morning that 697 people tested positive for 
coronavirus in the past day, which raised to 11,221 the total number of cases 
registered in the country of about 3 million.
The ministry also reported 6 new coronavirus deaths. The official death toll 
from the COVID-19 epidemic thus reached 176.
The figure does not include the deaths of 68 other citizens also infected with 
the virus. The ministry claims that they died from other, pre-existing diseases. 
It recorded 9 such fatalities on Wednesday.
Due to the accelerating spread of the virus the health authorities stopped late 
last month hospitalizing or isolating individuals showing mild symptoms of the 
disease or none at all.
“Only about 15-20 percent of the registered cases need hospitalization, while 
the rest stay at home under the surveillance of primary healthcare bodies,” 
Torosian told a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“On a daily basis, almost manually, so to speak, we accommodate patients on the 
existing hospital beds,” he said. “It is very important that we register a 
substantial decrease in [infection] numbers so that we can keep up … this 
process.”
“Or else, it will be very difficult to ensure all that,” he added.
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian attends a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 
June 4, 2020.
Torosian earlier warned of an impending shortage of beds at the intensive care 
units of hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. He said on Monday that dozens of 
more such hospital beds will be made available in the coming days and weeks.
According to the health minister, 450 patients are in a serious or critical 
condition at the moment.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated earlier in the day that “there are already 
people in need of hospitalization whom we cannot hospitalize on time.” “Our 
healthcare system is already bending downwards,” he said in a video message 
livestreamed on Facebook.
During the ensuing cabinet meeting, Pashinian again complained about Armenians’ 
“widespread” noncompliance with safety rules. He singled out people’s failure to 
observe social distancing when lining up outside commercial bank or post offices.
Central Bank Governor Artur Javadian and Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob 
Arshakian assured Pashinian that their respective agencies are taking effective 
measures to get customers to stand away from each other outside those offices.
Torosian seemed more worried about COVID-19 infections reported among workers of 
manufacturing enterprises. He said they are fraught with “big outbreaks” of the 
disease in various parts of the country.
Armenia’s largest textile factory located in the northern city of Vanadzor was 
forced to close for three days on Wednesday after at least 39 of its 2,600 
employees tested positive for the virus.
The worsening coronavirus crisis is fuelling growing calls for the Armenian 
government to re-impose a nationwide lockdown. Pashinian admitted earlier this 
week that the health authorities are also favoring such a drastic move. But he 
gave no indications on Thursday that it is imminent.
ARMENIA -- A woman wearing a protective facemask walks in central Yerevan, June 
2, 2020
Instead, the prime minister again urged Armenians to wear face masks, practice 
social distancing and frequently wash their hands. He reiterated that the 
success of his government’s fight against the epidemic primarily depends on 
their responsible behavior.
On Wednesday, the government decided to make it mandatory for every citizen to 
wear a face mask or a cloth covering their mouth and nose not only in enclosed 
spaces but also in the streets and all other public areas.
Critics of the government are skeptical about the effectiveness of this strategy 
of containing the virus. They say that only a renewed lockdown can make a 
difference.
The government had already issued stay-at-home orders, banned public transport 
and shut down most businesses in late March. But it began gradually easing those 
restrictions already in mid-April.
The daily number of new coronavirus cases recorded by the Ministry of Health has 
skyrocketed since then. Critics say that the authorities never properly enforced 
the lockdown and lifted it too soon.
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.