By following the recent developments of Armenia and internationals ones it becomes possible to draw a very interesting conclusion and find a range of parallels. For example, during his rally on June 12 Levon Ter-Petrosyan presented an episode of a dialog he had had with one of the European diplomats. “When the diplomat pledged that his country is sincerely interested in helping Armenia I tried to find out who he means when saying Armenia – the people or the government. He indeed, understood my hint but tried to diplomatically and slightly nervously cover it by repeating that his country really intends to help Armenia,” said Ter-Petrosyan. In this regard, the statement of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, made several days ago in Moscow, also sounds interesting. He said that the stronger Russia is the stronger Armenia will be. It is interesting to know who Serzh Sargsyan meant when saying “Russia” and “Armenia.” If he meant Russia as a country then it is slightly disputable. To a certain extent the stronger Russia is the weaker Armenia is because a stronger Russia will have mightier levers to affect the foreign and internal policy of Armenia. A fresh example of that was Armenia’s refusal to participate in the NATO military trainings. Perhaps soon there is going to be another example, connected with the EU Eastern Partnership Program, which we had jointly signed but Russia seems pretty jealous about that. It is a little strange that after a big thrill the Armenian government (specifically the Foreign Affairs Minister) remains silent about the further developments and prospects of the project. Nevertheless, let us come back to Russia. If by saying mighty Russia Serzh Sargsyan means the government then everything is OK in this regard. The Russian government is really powerful. Everybody got convinced of this when watching on TV the conversation between the Russian Premier Putiin and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Let us describe the incident in a couple of words for the ones, who haven’t watched it yet. The three factories of Pikalev town of Leningrad region, which employs the whole population of the town, has stopped functioning recently due to the global crisis and thee workers haven’t been receiving wages. The workers, in their turn blocked the Saint Petersburg-Vologda highway and demanded that Putin comes to meet them. To the surprise of many Putin visited them. He walked in the factory, criticized the management for turning the factory into “garbage dump” and then he held a meeting with the owners of the factory. The main owner of the factory is oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whose property prior to the crisis, was estimated up to 28 billion USD. This means that he was a great image! But this wasn’t an obstacle for Putin to publicly degrade this man. Below is the quotation of that incident.
Putin (addressing to the provider of the raw material Volkov) – Have you signed this contract yet?
Volkov – Yes.
Putin (looking at Deripaska with a threatening look) – Did Oleg Vladimirovich signed?
Deripaska (very carefully) – I did.
Putin (by shaking the contract) – I kind of don’t see your signature here. Come here and sign. Come to me. Here is the contract. Putin contemptuously throws the contract and the pen on the table. Deripaska, one of the richest people in the world, according to the Forges, approaches the table with fear, takes the thrown contract and pen. He reads it, signs it and goes back to his seat. But he was so confused that by mistake took with him Putin’s pen, which doesn’t miss from the eye of the former President. “Return my pen,” says Putin in front of the eyes of dozens of millions of people. The TV viewers especially liked this last replica. As the Russian media writes they laugh by not forgetting that Russia is a market economy and the state official didn’t have the right to treat an entrepreneur. Let us also mention that Putin gave only 1 day to the businessmen to acquit their debts to the employees of the factory. Otherwise he threatened that the state may confiscate the factory. And only several hours after the visit of Putin the Russian TC companies show the happy faces of the residents of Pikalev receiving their salaries from ATMs. In this regard one of the Russian journalists made a quite interesting observation, “Recently the South-African scientists made a very interesting invention. They found out that certain male species of smooth lizards may be transformed into female species. As it is seen such a sexual transformation is characteristic to certain people, when they meet strong competitors…” As a matter of fact, the government of Russia is very powerful. For example, can you imagine Putin’s Armenian counterpart Tigran Sargsyan treating the Armenian oligarchs the same way? Neither do we. The reason is that it is against the principles of liberal economy and the government ensures, “As a result of the economic crisis none of the actions of the government will contradict the principles of free market and liberal economy” (quoted from the government report on anti-crisis actions). It doesn’t seem too bad. Finally the country is powerful not only with its officials but citizens and businessmen. On the other hand when you remember who the energy powers of Armenian belong to; communication and other key sectors one doesn’t see any reason to be happy about. The strategic areas of our country are in the hands of people, who the Russian premier easily degrades. And when these people come to Armenia they are met at the highest level. And having seen and said that one fears even to imagine what Putin and Medvedev would do to our country’s leadership if they didn’t behave right. The reason is that the stronger Russia is the “stronger” we are.
