Parliamentarian: The revolution that took place 2 years ago in  Armenia should also be projected on relations with Russia

ArmInfo. In fact, with his statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov openly acknowledged that Russia is raising gas prices for Armenia in response to legal  processes instituted in our country in relation to Russian companies,  an independent lawmaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Arman  Babajanyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"When the price for Armenia and Belarus was 2-3-fold  lower than the  market one, it was taken for granted. I think it's wrong to recall  allied relations only in a diametrically opposite situation.  Nevertheless, the issues between Armenia and Russia, including the  price for gas will be resolved in line with alliance and strategic  partnership, "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told  participants at the Gorchakov Foundation's roundtable on April 21.

The minister called domestic tariffs another difficult chronic  problem in Armenia, which hinder the most preferential approaches for  final pricing. He also noted the need for alliance in all areas. "We  hope that the lawsuits against the Armenian-Russian enterprises will  be settled based on mutual agreement without trying to bring  inappropriate relations between the allies," Lavrov said.  Such  statements, according to the parliamentarian, do not correspond to  the existing allied, trade-economic and military-political relations  between Armenia and Russia. Babajanyan regards Lavrov's statements as  blackmail and interference in the internal affairs of Armenia. 

The parliamentarian noted that the legal processes in relation to  Russian companies in Armenia, including South Caucasus Railway, are  due to their many years of activity in criminal, corruption schemes  and in cooperation with the former authorities of Armenia. According  to him, such behavior is inherent in Russian companies in those  countries where local authorities allow this and, in a broad sense,  is, unfortunately, part of the Russian business culture.  According  to the lawmaker, the legitimate, lawful authorities of Armenia are  striving to bring into the legal field all, not just Russian,  companies. In response to this, Lavrov actually responds with a  threat to increase gas tariffs if Russian companies are not allowed  to continue working in Armenia bypassing legislation. Babajanyan  considers this situation to be unacceptable, seeing the need for a  symmetric response from Yerevan.

"Moscow, of course, can afford such a cynical attitude thanks to the  shameful gas agreement signed by the former authorities of Armenia.  And of course, Gazprom's possession of internal gas distribution  network in Armenia. It can afford to talk about raising gas tariffs,  while energy prices are falling catastrophically around the world,  however, the fact that our authorities inherited all this  "inheritance" from their predecessors does not in any way mean that  they do not need to think about revising these agreements. "it's a  rather complicated process regarding all other components of  interstate cooperation and relations. Nevertheless, I consider it  important to project the revolution that took place in Armenia 2  years ago on the field of our relations with Russia," Babajanyan  concluded.