Those readers who are boxing fans have probably heard this anecdote. The husband, who loves boxing, comes home early with beer and lobsters, sits comfortably on the couch to watch a boxing match. During the first round, even before the husband takes a sip of the beer, one of the boxers is knocked out. The poor husband looks at the wife in a shocked way and says, “You see what happened?” The wife answers, “Now you understand me…”
Perhaps those journalists who were at yesterday’s press conference of RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan and Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov may quite well understand the joke. It was scheduled at 1:05 but the journalists were asked to show up 25 minutes earlier – at 12:40. It sounded logical. However the press conference only started at 1:30, and the media representatives had been waiting for the spokesmen for one hour.
The journalists were standing on their feet because a space of only 5-6 meters was chosen for the conference. There were no chairs. The microphones were making strange sounds from time to time and acoustics caused trouble in understanding the questions and answers. The efforts of the journalists to ask questions were not justified because the press conference lasted only 15 minutes. Only 3-4 people had a chance to ask questions. Others only had the honor to comment on those questions.
The topic as you understood was not very broad. Both parties expressed their satisfaction about the ferry boat route of “Kavkaz”-Poti.
Sargsyan and Ivanov stressed the fact that the volume of Russian-Armenian trade almost doubled last year. “Nonetheless, we think that the volume of our trade is still modest and that we should achieve more,” he said, adding that it will grow faster after this week’s launch of a rail ferry service between Russian and Georgian Black Sea ports. The Armenian government’s press service said Sargsyan and Ivanov discussed bilateral cooperation in the energy, transport and military-technical sectors. But did not report any details.
Nevertheless, Ivanov mentioned that there are certain important issues. “We have discussed those today but we don’t avoid talking about those. But believe me, those issues are on the road to solution regardless of the difficult transport blockade of Armenia.”
Sargsyan mentioned that besides railway transport, it is necessary to solve the issue of automobile transportation. There are products, such as apricots, which are transported to Russia only via automobiles. The spokesmen ensured that they had spoken about those issues as well.
One of the happy journalists, who was able to ask a question, asked Ivanov’s opinion about Sargsyan being appointed RA Prime Minister. Ivanov reminded that he had known Sargsyan since the past century. “We have known each other during different positions – defense ministers, security board chairmen and now as civil entities,” said Ivanov, and added that during that period not only had they established normal business relations but also friendly ones and that they need to meet at least several times a year.