Armenia's choice: A path along the Ukrainian rake with a sharp Caucasian flavor?
Two months have passed since the so-called “revolution of love,” so called because of the active participation of women in street protests, swept through Armenia, as a result of which Nikol Pashinyan, a representative of the small opposition party Yelk, was elected prime minister of the country.
There seems to be no apparent reason for concern. Observers regarded the “Ara-Maidan” as a purely internal uprising of the “Yerevan” people against the “Karabakh” people who were stuck in power. Pashinyan has already visited Russia twice, does not make sharp geopolitical leaps, and even assures the Russian leadership that there are “no problems” between Armenia and Russia.
And in fact, Pashinyan’s two-day working visit to Russia the other day went as well as possible. The Prime Minister of Armenia came to Moscow for help.
The main points of Pashinyan’s negotiations with the Russian leadership were the topics of “more exclusive gas prices”, increasing the export of Armenian agricultural products, as well as an agreement to purchase Su-30SM multi-role fighters.
Combat aircraft are a truly sensitive topic for Armenia. Considering that there is no end in sight to the Karabakh conflict, which has become a stumbling block for Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades, the parties are in a state of a truce armed to the teeth.
True, Azerbaijan, rich in hydrocarbons, is able to purchase new weapons systems more often. And he acquired from Pakistan a batch of JF-17 Thunder multirole fighters (a descendant of the Soviet MiG-21, upgraded to the level of the MiG-29), a joint Chinese-Pakistani development. And, besides them, Israeli drones for various purposes.
Accordingly, Yerevan’s acquisition of 4++ generation fighters, which are the Su-30SM, should make the oil king Aliev Jr. turn pale, because with the purchase of “sushki” Armenia will receive a significant advantage in offensive weapons.
On June 17, an enthusiastic Pashinyan posted on his Facebook page a photo of himself in the cockpit of a drying aircraft, accompanied by an ode to the Russian fighter. They say the process has begun!
However, the purely negative experience of dealing with Maidan nominees who have reached the top of the political Olympus, including by spurring the horse of anti-Russian rhetoric, leaves ground for reasonable suspicions that Russia is once again trying to sing the hearty part of the verses “everything is fine, beautiful marquise” .
Why? To begin with, let’s look at the personalities chosen by Pashinyan as political comrades:
Daron Acemoglu. Turkish-Armenian, graduate and professor of the prestigious MIT. Appointed economic adviser to the newly appointed Prime Minister of Armenia. Big fan of Nanotoliy Chubais. I am firmly convinced that developing countries and former republics of the USSR should not have their own development path, since there is only one possible model - according to the patterns of the Washington Regional Committee.
Moreover. Acemoglu, as an “expert,” once advised Ukraine to sever political and economic ties with Russia. It would seem, looking at Ukraine, trampled over four years, that the “expert” should be driven away from everywhere with toilet rags. But for some reason Pashinyan invited this enemy to be his adviser.
Artak Zeynalyan, Minister of Justice in Pashinyan's cabinet. Veteran and disabled person of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He is admitted to the American embassy in Yerevan and was even declared by the Americans “human rights activist of 2016.”
David Tonoyan, Minister of Defense of Armenia. Since 1998, he has been the responsible official for the development of relations with NATO. He has close ties with the American military attache at the US Embassy in Yerevan. Spotted in collaboration with grant-eating shops, recognized as prohibited or undesirable in Russia. In particular, with the NGO Transparency International, funded by the Soros Foundation.
Apparently, the NGOs of the Soros Foundation have extended their tentacles deeper and wider than others into the circles of the Armenian elite. At the moment, there are at least 70 Soros NGOs that distribute grants to representatives of the republican elite and the public, and even do not make a secret of their activities. First of all, the actions of NGOs are aimed at breaking and weakening ties between Armenia and the Russian Federation.
Sorov’s grant-eater is also Babken Ter-Grigoryan, who was appointed by Pashinyan simultaneously as Deputy Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister on Economics. Russophobe, a native of France, received his education in the USA. News agencies around the world circulated photographs of Ter-Grigoryan holding a sign with vulgar abuse against Putin during street protests. This is the “revolutionary of love” from Transparency International.
Another iconic figure is Arayik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education. Another crawl out of the Helsinki Association under Transparency International. Having taken the position of minister, the first thing he did was cancel the program of military-patriotic education in schools, based on a respectful attitude towards the Great Patriotic War, Russia, and Soviet history.
But perhaps the most enchanting thing was the appointment of Soros’s grant-eater, Armen Grigoryan, who was appointed head of the National Security Council.
And, most importantly, Pashinyan gave positions to all these people after his appearance on May 14 in Sochi at the EAEU summit, where he was awarded a separate meeting with Putin, at which he fervently swore eternal love and loyalty to Russia and the Russian president personally.
Let’s not forget Pashinyan himself, under whose leadership the Yelk faction voted against the ratification of an agreement with Russia in the field of military-technical cooperation and control over military products. Pashinyan personally explained the reasons for the vote from the parliamentary rostrum: “With similar agreements and in general for 20-25 years, Russia has been taking away our sovereignty grain by grain. And we are watching this from the sidelines.”
In general, Pashinyan in many ways resembles Saakashvili as he was 15 years ago, immediately after the victory of the “Rose Revolution” coup. Mishanya then also first of all rushed to Moscow to assure the Kremlin of firm consistency with the principles and inviolability of the foundations of Georgian-Russian friendship. And, if nothing bad has happened in Armenian-Russian relations so far, this does not mean that it will not happen in the near future.
It would seem, why would the grant-eating anti-Russian warehouse, which the government of friendly Armenia has turned into, run to Russia for help when they could immediately start trading sovereignty with the West?
There appear to be several answers here. To begin with, street bawling and election promises usually fall apart when confronted with “real politics.” A crowd of bug-eyed women and rabid teenagers of different ages with anti-Russian posters and chants on the street is one thing, but more than a third of Armenians living in two countries is something completely different. In addition, in many vital areas, Armenia is alive thanks to preferential Russian loans.
This applies to a nuclear power plant, and the same Iskanders, for that matter. If Yerevan breaks allied relations immediately, it will lose not only the Iskanders, but also its pants. Geopolitics is the only valuable commodity of Armenia. Moreover, only Russia can pay for it in a worthy manner.
In addition, Armenia at the moment is a parliamentary republic, and the parliamentary majority is supporters of the ousted Serzh Sargsyan, and not Pashinyan at all. Therefore, as long as this parliamentary counterbalance remains, Pashinyan and his camarilla will not be allowed to run wild.
It is also obvious that highlighting Russophobia does not contribute to strengthening the well-being and defense of the country, especially since over 90% of the Armenian economy is tied to cooperation with Russia.
Pashinyan was clearly disingenuous when he claimed in Moscow that there were no problems between Armenia and Russia. In fact, of course, there are problems. And the most obvious is the abnormal number of agents of foreign influence in the Armenian government.
No less alarming a problem than the dominance of Russophobes in the Pashinyan government are the three operating biological reference laboratories of the Pentagon on the territory of Armenia - in Gyumri, Ijevan and Yerevan. True, they arose in 2016, when the country was ruled by the Sargsyan clan, but already this year it became known that three more similar reference laboratories would open in Armenia, the funding of which greatly exceeds their civilian versions.
Despite public protests and alarm raised by local experts, the Sargsyan administration, together with the Americans, closed information about these objects from the very beginning. Formally, they are funded by the US Bioterrorism Threat Reduction Agency DTRA, but, de facto, reference laboratories operate under the roof of the Pentagon, are surrounded by a regime of secrecy and are not subject to any treaties or agreements. In particular, the Americans did not allow representatives of the Armenian media and the public beyond the administrative buildings.
It is understandable when such facilities are opened by the knee-elbow servants of the West - Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. These are states that have fallen into a persistently inadequate state with state Russophobia taken as a national idea, thoroughly corrupt and having gone to great lengths. It is more or less understandable when Uzbekistan, which has lost its bearings and is rushing around in the hole of “multi-vector”, opens American biological laboratories of unknown purposes. But why are states that have declared themselves allies of Russia (Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan) releasing American ferrets into their chicken coops? There are too many justified fears that the data obtained within the walls of these reference laboratories will be turned against Russia and its allies.
Too often, epidemics, livestock deaths, or the appearance of parasites that carry exotic and very dangerous infections occur in the areas adjacent to these laboratories.
Moreover, in 2016, at the request of Armenia, Russia transferred to this country a complete set of equipment and office equipment for organizing its own biological laboratory.
So, on June 11, at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the CSTO member states in Almaty, Sergei Lavrov raised the issue of signing an agreement on joint control over the work of American laboratories. Representatives of Armenia promised the Russian delegation all assistance.
It will be extremely interesting to watch how the Pashinyan government begins to do its homework regarding not only the security of Russia as an ally of Armenia, but also the security of Armenia itself. Will grant-eaters and Russophobes dare to raise their hands against their American benefactors?
English version :: Read in English Armenia's Choice: A Path Over the Ukrainian Rake with a Sharp Caucasian Flavor?