Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Armenia's Prime Minister was unable to bring any positive news from the capital of Russia.

Returning to Yerevan, Nikol Pashinyan said no final decision was reached on the gas price at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added that there is no decision on the gas topic and discussions on gas will continue in a working order. Pashinyan also noted that the parties understand, this issue is "sensitive" and expressed hope that gas negotiations will take place without "undesirable processes".

The topic of the gas tariff spoiled the New Year holidays not only to ordinary consumers of blue fuel in Armenia, but also the government. The "revolutionary" government failed to solve the problem before the New Year and write this merit to the people as an asset.

Russian gas for Armenia rose sharply from January 1, 2019. Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Kozak sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan, noting that Russian gas at the border will cost $215 per 1,000 cubic meters, and this is not negotiable.

The public is reassured, asserting that the growth will only affect the expenses of the state that buys gas from Russia and nothing will change for consumers. But few people believe in this, since doubling the price at the border will certainly affect the tariff for consumers.

Such news, especially at the height of winter, of course, worries Armenian society. Considering that Armenia is a mountainous country with a continental climate and winter is traditionally cold there, Armenians will be forced to pay more in order not to freeze.

The only optimistic outcome of Pashinyan’s visit for the Armenian society was the long-awaited congratulation of Vladimir Putin on the victory of his party in the parliamentary elections. However, Armenian society hardly needs these congratulations on the threshold of a cold winter.

General Director of the Russian "National Energy Security Fund" Konstantin Simonov noted that the decision on gas is a political decision. He said Russia wants to show Pashinyan that he is addicted and for this it is necessary to increase the gas price. "The second strategy, on the contrary, shows that it can come to an agreement with Russia, so there is no need to raise the price," he believes.

Earlier, Armenia used to receive Russian gas at the border at $150 per 1,000 cubic meters, but it is sold to Armenian consumers at $ 290-292. Pashinyan tried to make claims on the Russian side about this issue in summer 2018, but after negotiations with Putin, he announced that they had come to the conclusion that "high gas prices are an Armenian problem".

It is obvious that the more aggravated Russian-Armenian relations are, the more trust in Pashinyan’s community falls. Pashinyan was in a hopeless situation that’s why he went to Moscow. Russia understands that new Armenian authorities are playing a double game. Calling on his supporters to participate in rallies, Pashinyan demands the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Armenia, and at the same time makes a number of political moves in order to receive funds from the West. Therefore, it would be so naive to expect that Russia will close its eyes to these antics of the new Armenian leadership and will agree not to raise gas tariffs.

Thus, the fiasco of Pashinyan’s visit to Russia was inevitable.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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