Monday,
Russia Refuses To Extradite Former Armenian Official
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Parliament deputy Mihran Poghosian at a session of the National
Assembly in Yerevan, 19 May 2017.
Russia has refused to extradite to Armenia a former senior Armenian official
who is facing corruption charges denied by him.
Mihran Poghosian was detained in the northern Russian region of Karelia in
April on an arrest warrant issued by Armenian law-enforcement authorities.
Poghosian, who was an influential figure in Armenia’s former leadership, asked
Russian authorities to grant him asylum, saying that the charges brought
against him are politically motivated.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said over the weekend that Russian
prosecutors have rejected its request to extradite Poghosian. A spokeswoman for
the office, Arevik Khachatrian, said they cited an article of a convention
signed by Russia, Armenia and a dozen other former Soviet republics in 1993.
The article says that a signatory to the convention can reject extradition
demands that could damage it sovereignty and national security or contradict
its national legislation.
According to Khachatrian, Armenian prosecutors have asked their Russian
colleagues to give a more “clear” explanation for their refusal to hand over
Poghosian.
Poghosian allegedly embezzled at least 64.2 million drams ($132,000) in public
funds when he ran a state agency enforcing court rulings from 2008-2016.
Investigators also accuse him of giving privileged treatment to a real estate
valuation firm that was contracted by the Service for the Mandatory Execution
of Judicial Acts (SMEJA) in 2014.
The firm was allegedly a subsidiary of shadowy companies set up by Poghosian in
Panama in 2011. Citing leaked documents widely known as the Panama Papers, an
Armenian investigative website reported in April 2016 that Poghosian controls
three such companies registered in the Central American state.
Poghosian dismissed the report. Nevertheless, he resigned as SMEJA chief
shortly afterwards. A year later, he was elected to the former Armenian
parliament on the ticket of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party.
Hovannes Igitian, a senior pro-government member of Armenia’s parliament,
expressed hope that the Russian authorities’ decision not to extradite
Poghosian was only “technical” and can be reconsidered.
“I don’t think that Russia is prepared to turn its territory into a safe haven
for individuals convicted or suspected of crimes committed in Armenia,” said
Igitian.
“Russia also realizes that this case must not become a precedent in our
relations,” he added.
Armenia - President Robert Kocharian (R) and Defense Minister Mikael
Harutiunian, 15 November 2007.
Russia already refused late last year to extradite Mikael Harutiunian, a former
Armenian defense minister wanted by the authorities on coup charges.
Harutiunian as well as another retired Armenian general, Yuri Khachaturov, and
former President Robert Kocharian were charged in July 2018 with illegally
using Armenian army units against opposition protesters in March 2008. The
Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the accusations as politically motivated.
Khachaturov was the secretary general of the Russian-led Collective Security
Treaty Organization at the time.
It emerged afterwards that Harutiunian is a Russian citizen and now lives in
Russia. Moscow argued that Russia’s constitution forbids the extradition of
Russian nationals to foreign states.
The Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergey Kopyrkin, made a point of meeting
with Kocharian after he was again released from custody in May. Kopyrkin was
summoned to the Armenian Foreign Ministry in connection with that meeting.
Armenian Military Reports ‘Important’ Agreements With Moscow
Russia -- Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu (L) meets with his Armenian
counterpart Davit Tonoyan, Moscow, August 17. 2019.
Defense Ministers Sergey Shoygu of Russia and Davit Tonoyan of Armenia agreed
on fresh arms deals at their latest talks held in Moscow, the Armenian Defense
Ministry indicated on Sunday.
The ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, said they discussed, among other
things, Russian-Armenian “military-technical cooperation,” an official
euphemism for arms production and supplies.
“Davit Tonoyan and Sergey Shoygu reached a number of important agreements on
the implementation of bilateral military-political, military and
military-technical programs,” Hovannisian wrote on his Facebook page. He did
not give any details of those understandings.
Hovannisian said the two ministers also agreed on the importance of continuing
joint actions by their armed forces and “reinforcing the combat readiness” of
Russian troops stationed in Armenia.
A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry likewise said “joint projects of
military and military-technical cooperation” were on the agenda of Saturday’s
talks but did not elaborate. It quoted as Shoygu noting “the strategic level of
relations” between the Russian and Armenian militaries.
The Russian minister also praised more than 80 Armenian demining experts, army
medics and other non-combat military personnel serving in Syria in close
coordination with the Russian military.
Russian and Armenian defense officials signed unpublicized agreements on fresh
Russian arms supplies to Armenian at the end of a five-day session of a joint
commission on “military-technical cooperation” held in Yerevan in early June.
The session began four days after the head of Russia’s Rosoboronexport state
arms exporter, Alexander Mikheyev, visited Yerevan and met with Tonoyan. The
two men also held talks in Moscow in late April. Tonoyan said afterwards that
Armenia will continue to acquire Russian weapons “very vigorously.”
In February, Yerevan confirmed the signing of a Russian-Armenian contract for
the purchase of four Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets to the Armenian Air Force. The
multirole jets are due to be delivered by the beginning of 2020. The Armenian
Defense Ministry plans to buy more such Russian warplanes in the following
years.
Russia has long been the principle supplier of weapons and other military
equipment to the Armenian army.
Government Excludes Tsarukian From Investment Forum
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Kotayk Governor Romanos Petrosian
(second from left) visit a trade expo held during an investment forum in
Tsaghkadzor, August 17, 2019.
Government officials pointedly declined to invite businessman and opposition
leader Gagik Tsarukian to a weekend investment conference in Armenia’s central
Kotayk province where he has long been a leading economic player.
The government-organized forum attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
brought together central and local government officials and entrepreneurs. It
was aimed at promoting investments in the region north of Yerevan.
Tsarukian, who has dozens of businesses in Kotayk, was conspicuously absent
from the event that featured a keynote address by Pashinian. The organizers
invited instead his mother Roza, who is involved in more small-scale
entrepreneurial activity in the area.
Romanos Petrosian, the Kotayk governor and a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party, said that he decided not to extend an invitation to Gagik
Tsarukian. He said that the forum was primarily meant to present small and
medium-sized business owners with investment opportunities in Kotayk.
“Mr. Tsarukian has been well aware of the province’s business attractions for a
long time,” Petrosian told reporters. “That is why I didn’t find it expedient
to invite him.”
Kotayk has long been the political stronghold of Tsarukian and his Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK), the largest parliamentary opposition force. The BHK’s
relations with Pashinian and his political team have been tense in recent
months. Earlier this year, the pro-government majority in the Armenian
parliament threatened to strip the tycoon of his parliament seat, saying that
he illegally combines his political activities with business.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C) arrives for a business forum
organized by Gagik Tsarukian (L), October 26, 2018.
The tensions were highlighted during a tightly contested mayoral election held
in the provincial town of Abovian in early June. The town’s incumbent Mayor
Vahagn Gevorgian affiliated with the BHK narrowly defeated his main challenger
representing the ruling party.
Incidentally, Gevorgian was also not invited to Saturday’s forum held in the
resort town of Tsaghkadzor. Also snubbed was Sevak Mikaelian, the mayor of the
provincial capital Hrazdan. Mikaelian’s father Sasun is a prominent political
of Pashinian who is at loggerheads with Governor Petrosian.
Petrosian claimed that the two mayors as well as the heads of smaller local
communities were not invited to the gathering because there was no room for
them in the conference hall.
The conference featured the presentations of 25 investment projects for Kotayk.
The governor expressed confidence that they will be put into practice.
For his part, Economy Minister Tigran Khachatrian would not say how many such
projects have been launched in Kotayk and other parts of Armenia since the 2018
“Velvet Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. He said that more time is
need for the Pashinian government’s economic policies to produce concrete
results.
“The average investment project cannot be implemented within six months,”
Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “All such projects require at least
two or three years of preparation and implementation.”
Pashinian Backs Major Mining Project In Armenia
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with local government officials
and environmental activists to discuss the Amulsar mining project, Yerevan,
.
Citing the findings of an independent environmental audit commissioned by his
government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Monday his intention to
allow an Anglo-American company to restart a controversial gold mining project
in Armenia disrupted a year ago.
Pashinian said that the company, Lydian International, will have to stick to
“unprecedentedly high environmental standards that have not been applied in
Armenia until now.”
He said that the government will also force other mining companies operating in
the country to gradually comply with those standards. He claimed that some of
those companies have sponsored environmentalists’ campaigns against Lydian in
an effort to kill the Amulsar project and thus avoid spending large sums of
money on improving their notoriously poor environmental records.
Work on the massive gold mine located in the southeastern Vayots Dzor province
started in August 2016 following a lengthy licensing process. But it ground to
a halt in June 2018 as several dozen protesters blocked all roads leading to
Amulsar. The roads have remained closed since then, with the protesters saying
that gold mining and smelting operations there would pollute air, soil and
water resources.
Lydian, which claims to have already invested $400 million in the project,
dismisses these concerns, saying that it will use modern and safe technology.
Early this year, the Armenian government hired a Lebanese environmental
consultancy, ELARD, to conduct an environmental assessment of what would be one
of the biggest foreign investment projects ever implemented in Armenia.
Pashinian and other officials indicated that Lydian’s renewed operations will
depend on the results of that audit.
ELARD was specifically tasked with looking into the project’s potential impact
on Jermuk, a famous spa resort located around 20 kilometers from Amulsar, and
the more remote Lake Sevan.
According to ELARD’s final report publicized by an Armenian law-enforcement
agency last week, underground water at Amulsar is not connected with mineral
water sources in Jermuk or rivers and canals flowing into Sevan.
The 200-page report says that gold mining poses greater environmental risks for
other rivers flowing through Vayots Dzor. But it says they can be minimized if
Lydian takes 16 “mitigating measures” recommended by ELARD. Lydian has
expressed readiness to take virtually of all those measures.
In an 80-minute live broadcast aired through Facebook, Pashinian insisted that
the Amulsar project does not carry any environmental risks for Jermuk and Sevan.
“We will carry out constant monitoring and if we see that Lydian does not
ensure zero emissions of contaminated water from the mine we will first warn
and give it 90 days to rectify things,” he said. “If that is not done [within
90 days] the mine will be closed. The government has all the levers to solve
this issue.”
Pashinian argued that right from the beginning his government made Lydian’s
renewed operations at Amulsar primarily conditional on the environmental safety
of Jermuk sources and Sevan. “We must today honor our own condition [set for
Lydian,]” he said, adding that failure to do so would make Armenia look like an
“unserious state” in the eyes of the outside world.
Armenia -- Environmental activists protest against the Amulsar gold mining
project, Yerevan, .
Pashinian made the comments hours after meeting with parliament deputies
representing his My Step alliance. Some of those lawmakers make no secret of
their continuing opposition to the Amulsar project.
Earlier on Monday, Pashinian held a separate meeting with local government
officials from Jermuk and nearby rural communities as well as local and
Yerevan-based environmental activists also hostile to the project. The latter
seemed dissatisfied with Pashinian’s statements made at the meeting. They
insisted that gold mining at Amulsar would wreak havoc on the national
ecosystem.
The activists then joined about 200 protesters that rallied outside the venue
of the meeting with Pashinian. They marched to the nearby parliament compound
in Yerevan but were not allowed to enter it.
The crowd responded by trying to block an adjacent busy street. Riot police
were quick to forcibly restore traffic though the street. Several protesters
were detained on the spot.
In his video address, Pashinian did not say whether the authorities are now
also ready to use force against the people continuing to block Lydian’s access
to Amulsar.
The company has repeatedly condemned the blockade as illegal and criticized the
Armenian government for not lifting it. In March, it openly threatened
international legal action against Armenia.
The Amulsar project has been supported by the U.S. and British embassies in
Yerevan. U.S. diplomats have warned that continued disruption of Lydian’s
operations could scare away other American investors interested in Armenia.
Lydian is registered in a British tax haven, headquartered in the U.S. state of
Colorado and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its shareholders include
U.S., Canadian and European investment funds as well as the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development.
The company planned to produce 210,000 ounces of gold, worth over $315 million
at current international prices, annually at Amulsar. It also pledged to create
about 800 permanent jobs and pay about $50 million in annual taxes.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org