Category: News

We used to spread better quality asphalt by hand than Pashinyan now, using German technology. Samvel Karapetyan, chairman of the “Strong Armenia” party, said this during a question-and-answer session with Alik Aleksanyan.

“The key to success is very hard work. We were laying asphalt, I lived in the Zeytun hostel. Every year when we were students, my brother and I went to help our parents for 3 months of the summer and lay asphalt by hand. What the equipment does now, we did it by hand then, we earned money, I gave half of it to my parents, half of it I brought with me, I lived in the Zeytun hostel, I got a scholarship, plus a salary, I felt good all year round

There are many interesting stories about my work activities, but the most important thing is that we managed to pass the 90s well, because at that time I was already in Kaluga, which Pashinyan loved very much, it was a difficult time, there were years of survival or not, but we passed with honor and a normal name, after that everything was a little easier, but it gave us a great experience,” he noted.

Touching on the best memories related to May 1st, Samvel Karapetyan recalled how it was celebrated in his school years.

“We were school children, we went out to the village square with flags, a good student was taken to Tashir Square with neckties tied, it was happiness for everyone.”

When asked how he came to the decision that the name of the company should be Tashir and how he was able to make Tashir a global brand in difficult years, Karapetyan answered:

“When I was a student, our region was called Kalinino region, I was studying in Yerevan, professors asked me where I’m from, I said I’m from Kalinino region, 90% didn’t even know about that region. To tell the truth, it hurt me, they always confused me, gave me different names, mostly they couldn’t decide where I was from, that’s why even then I had that desire to do everything, let people know exactly where I’m from, now many people, even in the world, know exactly where Tashir is, what it means and what it looks like.

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On May 1, the International Day of Labor and Workers, “Wings of Unity” presents the part of the pre-election campaign brochure aimed at protecting the working person and building a job-creating economy.

JUSTICE IS COMING TO PROTECT WORKING PEOPLE AND BUILD A STRONG ECONOMY

We will raise the minimum wage and pensions to ensure a decent life.

In case of job loss, we will provide temporary income compensation for a period of up to 6 months.

We will create training centers, providing access to more than 10,000 citizens in high-income sectors.

We will provide uncultivated land and abandoned buildings to those submitting development plans.

We will turn Armenia into a manufacturing and technological country with industrial zones, where there will be an almost zero tax system and simple administration.

We will introduce a new tax system. before its launch, we will restore the tax regime in effect until January 1, 2025.

We will eliminate sales tax and VAT, introducing a simple 5% tax instead.

We will eliminate the unfair approach of equal taxation. little income will be taxed less, more income – more.

Citizens will be able to buy business shares, the stock market will be accessible to everyone.

We will invest digital dram, ensuring transparency and control of state finances.

We will create centers for procurement of agricultural products and agroconsultation.

The payment for irrigation water, except for production and business purposes, should be AMD 500 for half a hectare, AMD 1000 for 1 hectare, and so on.

We will provide access to foreign markets, branding of agricultural products and logistic support.

We will develop insurance, including compensating livestock loss and crop destruction.

We will provide free apartments in marzes to families with many children, starting with the fourth child.

Income tax for a large family will be calculated from the total income, reducing the amount of tax for each child.

We will restore the “Rural Teacher” program, providing up to 0% credit, start-up financing, and in the case of long-term employment, land or financial support, as well as deferment from military service.

We will encourage the teacher’s professional development. no teacher who does not pass the voluntary certification will lose his job.

Quality, continuous training and re-specialization programs will be introduced for doctors working in state health institutions.

A new salary system for medical workers and educators will be introduced. place of work (especially in marzes), riskiness, workload, etc. will be taken into account.

Medical workers and teachers will no longer be involved in administrative work. the doctor should treat, the teacher should teach.

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It turns out that the government of Armenia has a special “love” for carpets, on one Vardavar holiday they allocate millions of drams and wash carpets on Baghramyan avenue, on the other they paint carpets in the central streets of Yerevan.

Back in 2019, on the Vardavar holiday, in Baghramyan Avenue, near the National Assembly, CP deputies organized a “carpet washing” event, for which, of course, they wasted a lot of money. On that occasion, KP deputy Lusine Badalyan said that “she likes to wash carpets, although she will not wash them that day, moreover, the Vardavar holiday is another opportunity to use and propagate the thousand-year-old Armenian culture, and the public should go, see and be proud.”

Almost a year after this “carpet washing” ceremony, in 2020 and beyond, however, the CPs changed their position dramatically towards carpets and national culture in general. After the 44-day war in Artsakh, Azerbaijan occupied Armenian Shushi, destroying the thousand-year-old Armenian culture, taking away Armenian carpets, some of which the director of Shushi’s carpet museum managed to save and transport to Armenia, to keep those saved carpets until today. power anywhere did not allocate.  Probably, Nikol Pashinyan and his teammates are afraid to use the word “Artsakh” and to allocate a place to store the carpets saved from Artsakh.

On April 25, when Nikol Pashinyan closed several streets of the capital and celebrated “Citizen’s Day” with a barbecue party, graffiti carpets were painted at the intersection of Abovyan-Pushkin streets, near the “Alexander” hotel, probably to welcome the participants of the 8th summit of the European Political Community to be held in Yerevan on May 4. Hopefully, Nikol Pashinyan, after welcoming his European colleagues, will also tell them about the oldest Armenian carpets left in Artsakh, which became the spoils of Azerbaijani soldiers after occupying Shush.

Anyway, it should also be noted that although the government “loves” Armenian carpets, for example, in 2018, when the Chancellor of Germany arrived in Armenia, he was greeted with a Persian carpet, the experts warned about this.

When we filmed the graphite carpet, it was not yet complete, one part was finished, the other part was not, probably they will finish it before the Europeans come. The area of ​​the graphite carpet is sealed with tape.

The author of carpet graffiti is “Gandz Graffiti” company. We learned from Instagram that the Dubai-based team has been creating works of graffiti, mural art and contemporary street culture for years. Their works have been presented in various countries in collaboration with Red Bull, Adobe, Dubai Municipality, as well as a number of festivals and cultural events in Saudi Arabia, Armenia and elsewhere.

Details in the video of 168.am

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Russian political scientist Sergey Markedonov referred to the 8th and 1st Armenia-European Union summits of the European Political Community Platform to be held in Yerevan on May 4-5, and against that background, Vladimir Zelensky’s expected visit to Yerevan.

Markedonov wrote on his Telegram page “Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Yerevan. a diplomatic impulse or just a procedural element of the summit?” writes that at first glance, the significance of Zelensky’s personal presence at those events should not be overestimated. with or without his participation, the ideological direction of the Yerevan forums is obvious.

The analyst reminds that last year, while summarizing the results of the EEC Summit in Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated: “It is clear to everyone that Russia is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to the whole of Europe.”

Of course, according to him, the leaders of EU countries do not represent the whole world, but it is important for Russia to understand and convey the general atmosphere of this political “networking”.

“Nevertheless, if Zelensky really visits Armenia, the importance of that visit should not be underestimated. Firstly, after the collapse of the USSR, high-level Armenian-Ukrainian contacts were quite limited. Leonid Kuchma, the second president of Ukraine, visited Yerevan in May 1996 and October 2022. Viktor Yanukovych was also in Armenia, but as the head of the government, participating in the events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Spitak earthquake. The third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, visited Kiev three times (once to participate in the inauguration of Yanukovych, then on an official visit, and once again for the purpose of negotiations and watching the final match of Euro-2012). Basically, this is the whole picture. In the post-Soviet period, Ukraine became a strategic partner of Azerbaijan. Let’s add to that his marked departure from Moscow (recall that Kuchma’s book “Ukraine is not Russia” was published ten years before the “second Maidan”). However, today, Armenia, which after 1991, unlike Azerbaijan, chose the path of a strategic ally with Russia, is on the path of revising its foreign policy approaches. Markedonov notes, adding that complementary policies and diversification have always been among Yerevan’s priorities.

Markedonov reminds that the idea of ​​complementarity was put into circulation during the presidency of Robert Kocharyan, and the “CEPA” agreement was signed by Serzh Sargsyan. However, according to Markedonov, there is a fundamental difference. at that time, other directions simply complemented the main Russian vector, not overshadowing it.

“Even in their worst dreams, Kocharyan or Sargsyan would not have thought of the formula ‘CSTO is a threat to Armenia’.” writes Markedonov.

Today, in his opinion, the RA authorities have other priorities.

“And although EU membership is not a real prospect for Yerevan (unlike Tbilisi, Armenia does not even have the status of a candidate country), the authorities are trying to get closer to Brussels, sometimes even ignoring the obvious economic advantages arising from the EAEU and cooperation with Russia.” In this context, Zelensky’s visit to Yerevan may become an important (and for some, risky) symbol of the new stage of Armenia’s foreign policy diversification. It can outline the future path of the country, in case of electoral success of the “Civil Pact”. It is not excluded that the situation reminds the lines of the famous song of the late 1980s: “you left your home shore, but you never reached the other”. After all, Ukraine did not become a full “European coast” in 2013-2026.․ In Brussels, it is seen more as a European border (frontier). However, unlike Armenia, Ukraine is at least geographically located in Europe. At the same time, by confronting Russia, Kiev is also trying to become active in the regions that are of particular importance for Moscow, in the Middle East and the South Caucasus.” writes Sergey Markedonov.

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Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev arrived in Armenia a few days ago, and his delegation met with Armenian businessmen in Aghveran.

Narek Karapetyan, member of the political council of “Strong Armenia” party, during the press conference held today 168.amIn response to the question, he referred to trade and economic relations between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the EU.

“Without developing economic relations with the European Union in the course of 8 years, or having natural access to one of the largest markets in the world, we have not been able to create an opportunity to export as much to Europe as Russian exports. Let me give an example. during this government, in the last 8 years, exports to France have declined by 20 percent,” he noted, adding that the current authorities did not support producers, the creation of productions in RA and organize new exports.

“Our country should not be a buyer, but a seller. This is the difference between our economic model and today’s model,” stressed Narek Karapetyan.

As for the results of the latest Gallup poll, according to which, if the parliamentary elections are held next Sunday, 26.7 percent will vote for the “Civil Pact” party, 14.1 percent for “Strong Armenia”, 8.2 percent for the “Armenia” bloc, 7.9 percent for “Prosperous Armenia”, 4.2 percent for “Wings of Unity”, the Political Council of the Strong Armenia Party the member mentioned.

“Regardless of the Gallup polls, we see that the next government will not be Pashinyan’s.”

Details in the video

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During today’s press conference, the member of the political council of the “Strong Armenia” party Narek Karapetyan announced that steps should be taken to normalize relations with Turkey, that the opening of the border is economically beneficial for Armenia, but that there is a question of economic structure.

“The economies of Turkey and Azerbaijan are agricultural production economies, they produce what the Armenian peasant produces. They do not consume what Armenians produce. They compete in economic structures other than gas and oil. We need a partner that buys our products, not sells them from our products,” he said, adding that Azerbaijan has very cheap agricultural products due to cheap gas, and Turkey also subsidizes gas and electricity.

As for the cooperation of the “Strong Armenia” party with various political forces in Armenia, the signing of memorandums, the last one was with “Hayakve”, that is, what is their political benefit, what is the calculation, and are they sure that there are no “criss” in their ranks, Narek Karapetyan said.

“We will not do CP to close ourselves in a small group and divide things among ourselves. Our main goal is the state system created on the basis of professionalism. The other, I am sure that 100 percent of our teammates are in a justified ideological struggle.”

Details in the video

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During today’s press conference, a member of the political council of the “Strong Armenia” party, Narek Karapetyan, was asked by a “Pastinfo” journalist that Nikol Pashinyan has no desire to cede power and is even talking about the constitutional majority, which means that another outcome of the elections will be questioned.

In response to these questions, the representative of “Strong Armenia” assured.

“There are countless leaders in the history of the world who thought they could hold power against the will of the people. I do not think that the elections will be falsified, normal elections will be held, and the vote of every citizen is important, who does not stay at home that day, will make a great contribution to the future of his children. Be sure that our voices will be heard.”

Details in the video

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Economist Tatul Manaseryan, founder of “Alternative” research center in my opinion, if Armenia negotiates with Turkey in the direction of re-operating the Gyumri-Kars railway, it should look a little further. According to him, it is not necessary to take some recent episode and announce that he wants to start and use that chicken.

“Armenia should see everything from a broad point of view. Is Turkey able to provide Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea further by operating that section, or is it just a small section, and the rest will simply remain at Turkey’s disposal?”

Turkey is bound by 3 international conventions, which were ratified by the Turkish Parliament, and also by the Armenian Parliament, after many of my urgings, by which we can set a condition before Turkey.” 168.amTatul Manaseryan said in a conversation with , referring to the recent meeting of the delegations of Armenia and Turkey in Kars, during which the commissioning of the Gyumri-Kars railway was discussed.

According to the economist, the problem is that with all the conventions ratified by the Turkish Parliament, there is one general requirement: those who have access to the sea are obliged to provide such access to those countries and states that are considered landlocked, that is, they do not have access to the sea.

“According to those conventions, this process should be carried out by the landlocked country completely free of charge. In other words, we are transporting cargo through the territory of Georgia today, it violates international conventions, because Georgia has also ratified that convention, and it is stated in them that it should be provided free of charge, while Georgia takes transit money from us.

Here are the norms of elementary economic diplomacy, which the political diplomacy of Armenia and the political elite in general must master in order for the negotiations to be effective,” added Tatul Manaseryan.

According to our interlocutor, the steps he mentioned are to enable Armenia to gain its political independence, turn it into economic independence and use communications.

To the question, taking into account all the political processes, how interested is Turkey in launching the Gyumri-Kars railway today, the economist answered.

“Turkey is interested, first of all, in the first circumstance: that the eastern provinces and regions of Turkey develop as much as possible. The next circumstance is that Turkey has to show the world community that it is a civilized country and in this case it can do it thanks to the normalization of relations with Armenia. Thirdly, with this, Turkey can take a certain part in the positive development of processes in the region and lay the foundation for impartiality in the future, if it does not push forward conditions or preconditions.

Let’s remind that on April 28, the meeting of the Armenia-Turkey joint working group for the restoration and operation of the Gyumri-Kars railway took place in Kars. In the context of the expansion of transport communications in the region, the parties emphasized the importance of the early launch of the Gyumri-Kars railway. The RA Foreign Ministry issued an official message about this.

We should also remind that the Gyumri-Kars railway was closed in 1993, when the Armenian side was achieving success in the first Artsakh war by liberating the Armenian territories. Turkey stopped railway works in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Years later, in 2005, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway bypassing Armenia. On October 30, 2017, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway with a total length of 826 km was inaugurated.

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Mikael Minasyan writes: “Why did Robert Kocharyan not win in 2021 and will not win in 2026?”

This is not an omen at all, but a reality that has a very clear and solid explanation and background.

Let’s start with the background.

Robert Kocharyan’s biggest political defeat was not losing power and not being re-elected, but the fact that he never became “ours”.

Robert Kocharyan was a stranger. That alienation was felt from the very beginning of his Armenian political career, from the moment he was appointed the Prime Minister of Armenia. And that feeling did not disappear even when he became the president. Moreover, that estrangement was mutual. he felt like a stranger among the Armenians, and the Armenians accepted him with marked distance as a foreigner.

This phenomenon has several explanations. First of all, you have to be honest. we Armenians are often xenophobic, xenophobic, but at the same time we suffer from domestic racism. That racism was especially manifested against the people of Artsakh and Baku. It is interesting that the same attitude was much milder towards Armenians from Vira, Armenians from Russia or Diaspora Armenians. But tolerance towards the Armenians of Baku and Artsakh was almost zero.

What is more painful is that almost 35 years later, a significant part of the Armenian society repeats the same aggressive attitude towards refugees. At that time, they were intolerant towards the Armenians who came from Baku, today, towards the forcibly displaced people from Artsakh. Times, wars, authorities have changed, but the deep social reflex has remained the same. “they are not ours.”

Starting from 1998, Robert Kocharyan had a historic chance to alleviate mutual alienation. But he missed that opportunity. He let go because of his temperament, rudeness, rudeness, not fully knowing Armenia and Armenians, and not fully mastering his native language. He mocked those who mocked him. He responded not with integration, but with reverse contempt.

Today it is difficult to say what was the real source of his internal aggression. The rejection of the people, the contempt of the elites, or the complex of own alienation? But the fact is that the second president not only could not overcome this alienation, but also became its embodiment. The people did not see their sin, did not recognize their prejudices, but instead alienated themselves not only from the head of the country, but also from the entire political heritage associated with him: the Karabakh movement, the Artsakh victory, the symbols of victory.

Kocharyan’s personnel policy played a big role here. It seems that he deliberately appointed people who did not speak Armenian, or who spoke in a dialect, to the key positions of the government, and with their behavior and language they deepened the impression of a “foreign government”. From customs to power structures, from ministers to bodyguard chiefs, a government environment was formed, which for a significant part of the society became not a state system, but an imported group.

The same thing happened with the oligarchy. A significant part of the business elite of newly independent Armenia was originally from Artsakh, Russian-speaking or speaking the Artsakh dialect. This made it easier for the deep people to identify them as “foreigners”. Social injustice got a regional face. Monopoly became not only an economic but also a psychological category. People began to think not “we are being robbed”, but “foreigners are robbing us”.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan became one of the godfathers of that political and cultural alienation. Years later, in an archival video posted on the Internet, the first president humorously asked Kocharyan. “Boy, are you Armenian or Albanian, and do you know the Our Father?” What may have been said as a joke, the public took literally. Today it is difficult to say whether the historian president was consciously putting Kocharyan into a stereotypical trap or not, but the second president could not, and by and large did not want to, get out of that trap.

As a result, Robert Kocharyan was branded as a foreigner, alienating with him everything that Artsakh represented. The Karabakh movement, which was the dream of the Armenian golden generation of the 1980s, which was supposed to end with national unity and the dignity of victory, gradually began to be perceived as the property of a narrow group during the years of Kocharyan’s rule.

Victory no longer belonged to the people. The results of the victory did not belong to the people either.

The deep people saw that the real beneficiaries of the victory are specific people: those who received positions, business, monopoly and immunity. And at that moment, the Karabakh movement, which was born as a national awakening, began to be renamed “Karabakh clan” in public consciousness.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan gave political language to that formulation in 2008, when in his pre-election rallies he defined the current regime as a “Tatar-Mongolian yoke”. It was not just a rhetorical blow. He formulated politically what had been brewing in the subconscious of society for years. the power is not ours, the power is foreign, the power has come upon us.

And it was against this background that Nikol Pashinyan was perceived as his own. He can be “our” idiot, “our” hypocrite, “our” liar, “our” traitor, “our” revolutionary, “our” savior, “our” disaster or “our” saint, but he is ours. Here is the biggest pain and the biggest political tragedy. Because the society often forgives the disaster of its own more easily than the victory of a stranger.

When Nikol Pashinyan announces that he is closing the page of the Karabakh movement, it is not necessary to blame only the deep people for not understanding the scale of that historical tragedy. You should try to understand what those people actually hear. He does not hear “the Artsakh page is closing”. He hears something he has been waiting for for many years. “the page of the Karabakh clan is closing.”

And if the price of that closure is Artsakh, a part of the society is ready to pay that price because they have been convinced for years, or they themselves have convinced themselves, that Artsakh is a symbol of victory taken from them, foreign power and injustice. This is the most terrible thing. Not that the people do not like Artsakh. Other than that, in his mind, Artsakh has been separated from himself over the years, has become someone else’s history, someone else’s victory, someone else’s property.

And this is the heaviest legacy of Robert Kocharyan. He didn’t just lose the political battle. He lost in history because he could not keep the victory as national capital. He turned it into a government asset. And when victory becomes group ownership, defeat inevitably becomes nationwide.

Today we are facing that very tragedy. A nation that did not feel the victory as its own, does not feel the defeat as its own until the end. And until we understand this mechanism, we will continue to wonder how it was possible to close an entire national era without a nationwide upheaval.

The answer is harsh, but simple. that era was alienated from the people a long time ago. It required a scoundrel without values ​​to come and close a page which, in the eyes of a large part of the people, was already someone else’s book. And Pashinyan appeared. He did it with particular cruelty and hatred.
And despite the defeat and the war, he stayed because the Armenian people faced the Pashinyan-Kocharian dilemma.

Kocharyan promised to “carry”, and Nikol asked for protection from his people. And Kocharyan lost.

Today, five years after the defeat, he and his teammates insist that the “Armenia” alliance will overcome the 8 percent threshold with the same persistence as “we will carry” in 2021. In fact, it is not important whether they will get the coveted 8-10 percent or not. what is important is that there is no question of winning anymore, their main task today is simply not to lose.

Kocharyan cannot win, but with his image and presence, he revives public collective traumas, thereby preparing fertile ground for the reproduction of Nikol’s power.”

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In Armenia, in one of the hotels in Aghveran, Armenian businessmen also participated in the meeting with the delegation headed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Shahin Mustafayev. Although the names of the businessmen have not been made public, it is said that among others, the businessman Samvel Aleksanyan, who has always been close to the government, and the people from the company belonging to the family of Khachatur Sukiasyan, the ruling “Civil Agreement” faction MP, were also present.

168․am–Hrant Mikayelyan, a political economistasked whether this should be considered an alternative offered to the economic community of Armenia, in case of possible conflicts with the Russian Federation.  Are they preparing for an alternative?

“Definitely, of course. All the statements of the authorities are about the need to integrate into the Azeri-Turkish political line. An example is the connection of energy systems. this is against the interests of Armenia, but they have already announced it.

Moreover, there are no similar statements from the other side.  they are satisfied with on-duty announcements about some processes. This is the integration of Armenia into the East-West corridor,” he said.

To the question of what Armenia can export, because we see, through Azerbaijan, import from Azerbaijan, even if it is demonstrative, I think there is, the specialist answered, first drawing attention to the question of what format this will take place.

“Let’s put the economic relationship aside. In the background of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Artsakh, trade and business are politically unacceptable. In other words, it shows that we say it is normal.

From the economic point of view: it is very important in what format these relations are established: equal or not. In other words, do we have the same opportunities as them, do we have the opportunity to enter any territory of Azerbaijan, trade, travel, etc., do we have guaranteed security? What relationship framework is established? Otherwise, a product is secondary from one side to the other,” explained Hrant Mikayelyan.

The economist drew attention to another reality. In recent years, Azerbaijan has been actively studying what Armenia exports to Georgia and Russia in order to replace it and create an alternative, pushing out Armenian producers.

“But, in any case, if free economic relations are established, they will definitely create some opportunities to trade and export, definitely a product worth 200-300 million dollars can be exported to Azerbaijan. Will Azerbaijan import something else or not, and to what extent will equal conditions be created,” he remarked.

To the question: what is RA’s alternative at the moment, if Russia’s positioning in the region is passive, Iran is in conflict, and the USA and the West are solving their own problems here?

“Yes, Russia has distanced itself in the region… but Armenia should not hope that it can maintain the entire external front with relations with one country or bloc. It is necessary to realize that a multi-vector policy is necessary, and it primarily includes not Russia and the West, but Asian and even African countries, and especially India, China, Iran, Arab countries, etc. There is a huge potential there, much higher than in the West,” he answered.

Hrant Mikayelyan responded to the observation that the RA authorities are not doing this now. “Definitely not. this government does the opposite. In recent years, we have not developed any additional direction, but Russia’s direction is gradually collapsing at the initiative of the authorities. In other words, the range of external relations is not expanding, but narrowing. we have de facto no new partners. There is an insignificant widening in the western direction, but it is mostly at the level of Pyar.

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