Thursday,
Armenian Official Unsure About Russian Gas Price In 2020
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Garegin Baghramian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, November 8, 2018.
The head of an Armenian regulatory body said on Thursday that it is not yet
clear whether the price of Russian natural gas imported by Armenia will change
next year.
Russia’s Gazprom monopoly raised the wholesale price from $150 to $165 per
thousand cubic meters in January. But under an agreement reached by it with the
Armenian government, the cost of its gas for Armenian households and corporate
consumers will remain the same for now.
Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission
(PSRC), expressed confidence that Armenia’s Gazprom-owned gas distribution
network will not ask the PSRC to raise the retail prices as well this year.
But Baghramian could not say whether the Russian gas tariffs for Armenia will
rise, fall or remain unchanged in 2020. He said the government is continuing to
negotiate with the Russian side on the issue.
“I can’t say at this point what will happen. Like I have said before, each
party negotiates to try achieve a more economically beneficial result,” he told
reporters, adding that Yerevan hopes to convince the Russians to cut the gas
price.
Reports in the Armenian and Russian media have said that Moscow is on the
contrary keen to raise the current tariff set below international market-based
levels. Baghramian dismissed these reports as mere “presumptions.”
The gas issue is expected to be on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s visit to Yerevan slated for October. Putin most recently discussed it
with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at a meeting held in Saint
Petersburg on June 6. Pashinian said after those talks that a low gas price is
essential for continued economic growth in Armenia.
Pashinian Vows To ‘Improve’ U.S.-Armenian Relations
U.S. -- President Donald Trump an First Lady Melania Trump pose for a
photograph with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at a reception in New
York, September 26, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to strengthen Armenia’s relationship
with the United States when he congratulated President Donald Trump on
America’s Independence Day on Thursday.
Pashinian stressed in that regard the importance of negotiations held by senior
U.S. and Armenian officials in Yerevan in May.
“It is my pleasure to state that the first meeting of the U.S.-Armenia
Strategic Dialogue was recently held in Yerevan,” he said in a congratulatory
message to Trump publicized by his office. “It evidenced the progress in our
bilateral relations, which are based on shared values.”
“Armenia is eager to improve these relations and develop multifaceted
cooperation between our two countries,” he added.
Like Armenia’s former leaders, Pashinian thanked the U.S. for its economic and
other assistance to his country which has totaled over $2 billion since 1992.
“The support of the United States today will allow for smooth and faster
reforms and make democracy irreversible in Armenia,” he said.
Pashinian complained in March about Washington’s “zero reaction” to democratic
change in Armenia. He seemed unhappy with the fact that there has been no
significant increase in U.S. economic assistance to Yerevan since last year’s
“velvet revolution” which brought him to power.
The U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Lynne Tracy, countered afterwards that in 2018
Washington provided $26.7 million in assistance to Armenia in addition to an
ongoing $66 million aid program implemented by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).
The U.S.-Armenian “strategic dialogue” was followed by an announcement that the
U.S. government will provide up to $16 million in fresh aid to the South
Caucasus nation. In addition, the USAID pledged to allocate $6 million in
support of the Pashinian government’s “democratic reform agenda.”
Successive governments in Yerevan have sought closer partnership with the West
while keeping Armenia allied to Russia. Tracy said in May that “the
Armenian-Russian relationship should not and does not preclude Armenia from
also pursuing strong, mutually beneficial relations with the United States, the
European Union, and other partners.”
Constitutional Court Chairman Rules Out Resignation
• Astghik Bedevian
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- Hrair Tovmasian, the newly elected chairman of the Constitutional
Court, speaks in the parliament, Yerevan, March 21, 2018.
The chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasian, said on
Thursday that he will not resign despite having his legitimacy challenged by
the court’s newest judge and the ruling My Step alliance.
The judge, Vahe Grigorian, claims that only he and another judge of the
9-member court, Arman Dilanian, can make valid decisions because they were
appointed after constitutional amendments which took effect last year. Citing
the amended constitution, Grigorian says the Constitutional Court now consists
only of “judges” and does not comprise Tovmasian and six other “members”
appointed before April 2018.
In a joint statement issued last week, the seven members as well as Dilanian
dismissed Grigorian’s “peculiar interpretations” of the constitution and said
they “cannot have any legal consequences.”
Tovmasian referred to that statement when he was asked by journalists to
comment on the dispute. “There is no situation, no problem that needs to be
resolved,” he said. “I don’t see a problem. If I don’t see a problem I can’t
speak of solutions.”
Grigorian elaborated on his claims in a lengthy letter to Armenia’s government,
parliament and top judicial officials publicized on June 28. He urged them to
help resolve the “crisis” and proposed three different solutions, including the
election of seven new Constitutional Court judges by the National Assembly.
None of those state institutions has officially replied to Grigorian’s letter
so far.
Armenia -- Vahe Grigorian, a nominee to the Constitutional Court, speaks in the
parliament, Yerevan, June 18, 2019.
Echoing statements by other political allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
a senior My Step lawmaker, Vahagn Hovakimian, effectively sided with Grigorian
on Thursday. He said that Tovmasian and the six other court members are now in
a legally “vulnerable” position.
“From the standpoint of the public and many lawyers, they can no longer make
decisions on constitutional justice in the name of the Republic of Armenia,”
Hovakimian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
But Gevorg Petrosian, a senior lawmaker representing the main opposition
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), continued to strongly disagree with such
statements. “That letter [by Grigorian] must be folded as a relic and put
aside,” he said. “There is no legal dispute here. There is a political one.”
Petrosian has repeatedly argued that an article of the amended constitution
makes it clear that the Constitutional Court members appointed before 2018 can
serve as judges until they turn 65.
Grigorian’s claims were also dismissed as “nonsensical” by Davit Harutiunian, a
former justice minister affiliated with the former ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK).
“Even if I say that earth is flat that won’t bring about a crisis,” said
Harutiunian. “What would I do if someone appealed to me with a proposal which I
find nonsensical? Nothing.”
Tovmasian, who will turn 49 next week, was a senior lawmaker representing the
former ruling party until Armenia’s former parliament controlled by the HHK
appointed him as Constitutional Court chairman in March 2018. He is also one of
the main authors of sweeping constitutional changes which former President
Serzh Sarkisian controversially enacted in 2015.
Press Review
“Aravot” says that former President Robert Kocharian is the main architect of a
“criminal-oligarchic corrupt system” that has ruled Armenia. “Of course, the
seeds of that system, including vote rigging, were sown in the 1990s,” writes
the paper. “But at the time that was happening in a spontaneous fashion,
against the background of the breakup of the Soviet system, property
redistribution and impunity granted to some participants of the [Karabakh] war.
But it was Robert Kocharian who made these things systemic in with his
trademark determination and organizational skills. He decided who and when can
do business and who cannot; who must earn how much and pay up to whom; what TV
stations can and cannot report, and so on. While preserving this system, Serzh
Sarkisian tried to loosen the screws, so to speak. But that ultimately led to
regime change. This is the system which [Nikol] Pashinian and his team are
sincerely trying to dismantle.”
“Zhoghovurd” reports that Poland’s ambassador to Armenia was summoned to the
Foreign Ministry in Yerevan after the Polish Embassy refused to issue a visa to
an Armenian reporter planning to visit Europe. The paper hails the move, saying
that Western diplomatic missions must not create “obstacles” to travellers from
Armenia. It says people planning to emigrate to the European Union and stay
there illegally will always find ways of doing that.
“Hraparak” says that even the Armenian judiciary has often “ignored” decisions
made by the country’ Constitutional Court. The paper says this explains why the
court has not played a major role in the day-to-day lives of Armenians. “And it
is at least weird to say now that there is a constitutional crisis in the
country just because the Constitutional Court is not fully staffed or because
it is not fully clarified whether Constitutional Court judges are mere
‘members’ or real judges,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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