When there is any conversation about Russian-Armenian economic
relations, the authorities always announce that political relations are
better than the economic relations and that we must do everything we
can to make the two more intimate. Armenia “grants” strategically
important factories to Russia, it hands over a large part of the
electric power stations, but this does not mean that the economic
relations between the two are anywhere close to being normal. As a
result, some interstate conventions are formed, however, we get the
impression that they are founded not to improve the economic relations,
but rather to strengthen the friendly relations between the two
countries. The last convention like the one mentioned above is the
recently formed Armenian-Russian “Arades” company. By reading the
“Practical and Theoretical Governing” magazine’s special edition, one
can get a pretty clear idea of what the structure represents. The
co-presidents of the company are Nikolay Rizhkov, member of the
federalist congress from the Russian side, and National Assembly deputy
Vladimir Badalyan from Armenia, who happens to be Robert Kocharyan’s
brother-in-law. The vice president of the “Arades” committee is
president of the Workers’ Autonomous Party Levon Chakhmakhchyan. As a
matter of fact, the name of this last person Is connected with the
whole concept of creating this structure. According to facts, the
“Arades” association was really founded not for the development of
Russian-Armenian economic relations, but rather to reduce the influence
that president of the Armenian Union of Russia Ara Abrahamyan has. It
is well-known that Mr. Abrahamyan has had many contradictions with
Armenia’s authorities and that is why the authorities have always not
wanted him to play a major role in Russian-Armenian relations. Besides
officials and some big businessmen (Hrant Vardanyan, MIkhael
Baghdasarov), there are also representatives in the fields of health,
the banking system who, apparently, have no connection with Russian
Armenian relations and their managers are just in the “Arades”
presidential staff for keeping their reputations. Here, the magazine
features the “Mars” factory that was handed to Russia by the “Property
in exchange of debt” agreement with director Radik Vanunts and
vice-director Hrachik Karapetyan. In addition, Karapetyan has been the
former assistant director of the transportation department of the
Foreign Ministry staff, in other words, the “head of the garage” of the
Foreign Ministry. As to what the “Yupiter” photo agency (known as
“Konica”) has to do with Russian-Armenian relations is hard to say.
The thing is that this association, better yet-the Armenian
representatives, have turned into a center of mediocre in the framework
of Russian business.