If you remember about a month ago from now a survey was conducted among citizens, which proved that the majority of citizens don’t believe or don’t wish to believe that the Russians will raise the price. The participants of the surveys organized by the www.panorama.am web site are more realistic. 23.1% thinks that the gas price will be %65-85, 26.9% – $85-95 and 26.9% thinks that the price won’t be less than $95.
We don’t want to make predictions especially since there is little to wait (at least this is what they say). As to what the consequences will be after the price goes up, that is a different story The RA Prime-Minister A. Margaryan has assured that if Russia raises the price the RA government will try to make sure that the population doesn’t directly feel that increase in their daily life with the help of internal resources. No one knows what those “internal resources” are. The transaction “property instead of debt” has been officially refuted just like the loan that was supposed to be taken by Russia. Loans from international organizations don’t mean “resources”. In this regard the NA Deputy-Speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan has come up with a very interesting announcement that surprisingly skipped from the media’s attention. He said that when saying “inner resources” we should understand the shady sector. Let’s say the shade is reduced. What’s next? Is the state going to reimburse the gas price by those added means?-at least partly for the coming one year. It’s hard to imagine. This scenario means they are going to take the price difference from people and pretend they think a lot about people. Experience shows that when the authorities mean “fight against shade” they mainly mean the small and medium businesses. In this case it would be better not to do anything. At least people will not have to deal with tax inspectors.
Now we have to find out whether A. Margaryan meant the same as V. Hovhannisyan. If he did (only time will show) in that case the small businesses (stores and internet clubs, small markets) or the ones who don’t have support will get ready for the “good” times.
In regard to the gas topic and Russian policy, Armenians are still holding on strong. If we go back and look at the “days without gas” we will understand one thing. We didn’t suffer from those explosions. Our gas reserves were hardly enough. We were always provided with gas, besides the HES of Hrazdan. Armenia wasn’t the one to suffer because the HES of Hrazdan mainly provides electricity to Georgia. Perhaps it was right to accuse Georgian authorities. But we are still waiting. The Russians keep proving that they use market principles for all CIS states and our government keeps convincing us that Russia doesn’t care about us.
In Munich, a conference was held on security issues. When American Senator John McKaine accused Russia of pressuring Georgia and Ukraine, the deputy prime-minister of Russia and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov said, “… We don’t pressure our neighbors. You are either bad-informed or don’t understand. We have increased the price for all the CIS states including our closest partner Armenia”.
It’s interesting to know what justification S. Ivanov would have found if he hadn’t mentioned us. This is how Russia uses us – to move on with their steps. But what can we do? Russia is our strategic partner. Many Armenian opposition members are also careful when talking about Russia’s policy. They are afraid that the Russians might be badly disposed to our elections. But this version is not quite possible since we remember how Russians looked at us during our previous elections. Anyhow, we live in this country, which according to the Constitution is sovereign but is always “outside”. In order to not finish this article in such a sad way I’d like to quote the results of another survey conducted by www.panorama.am. To the question “are you happy living in Armenia”, 64.7% answered “Yes”, 10.8% – “Yes for now”. This means to say that we are not in a desperate situation and are doing just fine. If people are pleased, this means that they hope that things will change in the country and this is one of the most important things.