Short time after the official visit of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the latter has left for Baku for two days. The “analytical thinking” of Armenia (mostly working at the service of the state) put aside its own problems and in a childish envy started to follow and interpret every single detail and nuance of this visit by trying to draw parallels with the Armenian visit of Medvedev and trying to show the meaningless of the latter’s visit to Baku.
“As of the President’s visit to Azerbaijan then it can be shortly described as a visit for the sake of a visit. The problem is that in the agenda of the Russian president there is no point, which would give certain importance to this visit,” told panorama.am a newly emerged political scientist Armen Minasyan by adding that the Russian president has visited the neighboring country to just keep up with the parity. It means that the president had made sure that the Azeris don’t feel too insulted because of being Caucasian and showing enough hospitality. Of course, it would be nice to ask the politicians similar to Minasyan and other pro-government experts as well as journalists, who cautiously get interviews from them, as if this visit was not so vital why would they focus on it so much? In reality, however, Medvedev’s visit wasn’t so senseless. Of course, during the visit there were several sophisticated and formal moments. Medvedev was granted an honorable title of doctor by the State University of Azerbaijan, dinner was served; they returned to Russia 5 confiscated religious icons, standard speeches were heard. But there were noteworthy events as well. For example, an agreement on the state Russian-Azerbaijani border was signed. But the next document signed was much more important and had become the basic topic of discussion as a result of Medvedev’s visit to Baku. As the Russian Komersant writes in the framework of the visit of the Russian president the State Azerbaijani oil company and GazProm have signed an agreement about the increase of the volume of oil to be provided to Russia. According to the document in 2011 the volume of the natural gas provided to Russia from Azerbaijan will reach to annually 2 billion cubic meters and starting from 2012 this figure will exceed the one of the previous year. Komersant recalled that Azerbaijan is participating in the European Nabucco project, which is the competitor of the Russian South Stream pipeline. But currently the Russians are so close with the Azeris that this fact doesn’t worry them at all. “There are various projects and we cannot and shouldn’t hinder one another. Russia and Azerbaijan are great players, providers of resources. Therefore we should come to consent and be more cooperative,” stated Medvedev. It is no news that the energy is more important than “centennial brotherhood” or “blessed words.” Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised that on the background of “gas solidarity” the country, which has hostile relations with Armenia, all the sudden raises the issue of its status to the brotherly state. Thus, Medvedev called Azerbaijan the strategic partner of Russia and emphasized that the signed documents will link the two countries even more. Having mentioned that Russia and Azerbaijan have closely collaborated in the economic sector Medvedev said that the matters of security are very important in the modern world. After all this to claim that Medvedev’s visit to Baku was merely formal is only self-cheating. So why was his visit to Armenia to important? What concretely was the benefit of Armenia besides the prolongation of the deployment of the Russian military base in Gyumri? No one has given a normal and reasonable answer to this question. By the way, Medvedev mentioned in Baku that the document signed in Yerevan doesn’t change any principal condition. “It only means one thing. The terms of the base will be prolonged for several years,” he said. Of course, our political actors and pundits may one by one hold press conferences and with serious expression of eyes say that by calling Azerbaijan its strategic partner Russia doesn’t betray us – its de jure strategic partner (as they were speaking about the sale of C300 missiles). As of the gas relations, then in the civilized world money is in the first place and it’s very normal that the Russians wish to buy gas from Azerbaijan. With an interesting coincidence some information was also spread yesterday, which again relates to Russia, Armenia and the gas price. “In 2010 the transition of market prices will continue in Armenia, Belarus and Moldova and that is the reason why the prices will go up for the countries of the that region,” yesterday stated the deputy-president of GazProm Andrey Kruglov. And this happened in the case when only 5 months ago the director of ArmRusGazArd Karen Karapetyan was assuring that in the near future there will be no growth of price for gas. On the other hand we shouldn’t get too surprised. Karapetyan could have been unaware of this news. The Russians don’t consider the Armenians in their decisions and mostly speak to and cooperate with states that are more or less independent or have certain expectations from them. In our case, Russians don’t have any expectations because all of their expectations have today become reality for them. They got what they wanted. The most pity thing is that we don’t feel bad about this outpost situation but speak about that with commend. Currently Russian investment in Armenian reaches 2.75 billion USD. “Russia a very important trade partner to Armenia. It is the main investor of Armenia. Russia is also the consumption market for Armenian products. In Armenia there are 1400 companies that operate with the Russian capital,” with obvious pride mentioned the Armenian foreign affairs minister in his interview to the Russian Rosia-24 TV channel, by indirectly confessing the bitter reality. And in this situation the Armenian side sometimes needs to utter absurd words of consolation. For example, one of the outlets of Armenia asked a question to a political scientist, “How would you construe the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Baku? Was it an accident that before this visit on September 1, the first lady of Russia Svetlana Medvedeva visited #481 school after Marshal Baghramyan in Moscow?” The respond is similar to the question, “There are cases when the facts are so evident that no comments are needed. The visit of the first lady Medvedeva to the school after Marshal Baghramyan before the visit of the Russian president to Baku was one of those cases.” The comments are not necessary at all. If the Russian first lady visits a couple of places linked with the Armenian last names, we may merely refuse our independence and become a Russian oblast in honor of centennial brotherhood and gratitude.