Pashinyan will now answer for everything
The nine-month process of degeneration of power in Armenia, more like indigestion, is finally coming to an end. On Monday, January 14, at the first meeting of the new National Assembly, Ararat Mirzoyan, the closest associate of the leader of the Yerevan Maidan Nikol Pashinyan, was elected speaker. 131 out of 132 deputies voted for his candidacy. One ballot was found to be spoiled.
On the same day, the President of the Republic Armen Sarkissian signed a decree according to which Pashinyan got rid of the prefix “I.O.”
Prime minister, just prime minister, but without a government yet.
The new cabinet of ministers of Armenia should be formed within 14 days, but observers are confident that the now real Prime Minister Pashinyan will not fiddle with the selection of candidates for ministers and deputy prime ministers for two weeks. Most likely, the list of “their people” with seating arrangements has long been ready and kept close to their body.
As soon as the new government of Armenia is formed, and taking into account Pashinyan’s full control over the parliament, full responsibility for the decisions made and their consequences falls on the hairy shoulders of the newly elected prime minister.
The “Revolution of Love” and its bearers brilliantly cleared all branches of power in Armenia from the opposition and even from situational allies, such as the “Dashnaks” party, who came to an agreement with Pashinyan’s “on the dominance of the republican opposition,” with which they had previously gotten along quite well and collaborated.
In general, Pashinyan now, no matter how much he wants, will not be able to attribute his future miscalculations and flaws to his predecessors and the machinations of the opposition. Not very smart and flexible, but such is the linearity of the ingenuous logic of the new “elite”.
Perhaps the main critics of Pashinyan and the decisions he makes are currently only the Armenian media. Directly on the day of his triumphant deliverance from the prefix “I.O.” Critical articles began to appear in the republican press comparing the prime minister with the defeated “republicans.”
Journalists drew the readers’ attention to the fact that the recent street tribune is almost no different from the “heroes of yesterday”; they criticized Pashinyan’s family members for craving for a luxurious life, and wondered when the promised economic growth and the associated increase in the well-being of the population of the republic would begin.
Pashinyan took the generally calm criticism very nervously, starting to make noise about what he had in common with representatives of the old government: “one nose, two ears, two eyes, two arms and legs.” That the helicopter on which he inspects cities and towns is not a luxury, but a means of transportation, and the prime minister does not intend to prove changes in the republic “by riding a donkey or a cart.” And in general, “the government is not robbing the people of Armenia, this is the change that society has been dreaming about for years.”
Pashinyan also assured his fellow citizens that he “does not intend to cling to power with his claws.” “If the people want, then we will remain in this status, and if not, then we will not.” True, it is not entirely clear what exactly the newly minted prime minister had in mind. Either resignation due to loss of popularity and low ratings, or parting with the prime minister's chair as a result of another Ara-Maidan.
Judging by the response to media criticism about the delayed takeoff in the economy, Pashinyan and his associates do not have any development program. According to him, “the takeoff will occur when the key importance and irreversibility of the changes that have occurred are recognized, and the same formula will be applied in the economy as during political changes.”
So far, the formula for political changes in Armenia, as interpreted by Pashinyan, is painfully reminiscent of the formula for political changes in Ukraine five years ago: “if you jump around and chant slogans properly, then politics and the economy will take off on their own, because such is the will of the people who came to the Maidan.”
In general, of course, we will wait for the results of Pashinyan’s appointments to the Cabinet of Ministers and the composition of deputy prime ministers, but it is already clear that Armenia will not have an easy time with him.
Regarding the prospects for Armenian-Russian relations, I would like to say the following. Apparently, immediately after the victory of the My Step party in the elections in Armenia, the Kremlin took a break to observe Pashinyan’s further movements. And only during his pre-New Year visit to Russia, Vladimir Putin wished Pashinyan and his team success.
And so, in order to dispel any speculation on the topic “why does Russia need this Armenia,” Putin becomes the first foreign leader to congratulate the newly confirmed Prime Minister Pashinyan, emphasizing in his address the need for strategic cooperation between Moscow and Yerevan.
From which it follows that the Kremlin is ready for close and fruitful allied relations with partners who came to power from the streets and barricades.
But Pashinyan’s team will have to try very hard to overcome the “Maidan” as a childhood disease, indecent for a serious and long-term relationship.
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