It’s been several days since the Armenian government cannot hide its joyfulness – Russia will allot a 500 million USD loan to Armenia. And if several days ago everybody was curious whether Russia will give any money at all now they are asking what for? Why would Russia give that much money to Armenia in conditions of the international crisis? Russia itself has its own financial problems. Our curiosity is justified because we all remember the “property as acquittal for the debt” project. The Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Nikolay Pavlov recently said, “Russia never leaves its friends alone at difficult moments.” These words sound wonderful and all the members of the coalition factions ensure that this is merely a loan and no special deal is made with Russia. The interesting thing is that nothing is mentioned about the terms of the credit and the interest rates. “Russia will extend a $500mln stabilization credit to Armenia to survive the global economic crisis,” RF Minister of Finance Alexey Kudrin stated yesterday. Speaking before representatives of the British business community, he pointed out that Russia is ready to render assistance to the other CIS member-countries, RIA Novosti reports. “We will assist the neighboring countries we are working with,” Kudrin said. Among the countries are Belarus, which will receive $2bln, Kyrgyzstan (over $2bln) and Armenia ($500mln). Other countries are applying to Russia as well, the Minister said. As of Kyrgyzstan a little more is known. Russia allotted 300 million USD to this country for 40 years and the interest rate it is only 0.75%. Moreover the loan will be started to be acquitted only in seven years. Kudrin made the announcement just hours after Russia promised to contribute $7.5 billion to a rescue fund of five ex-Soviet republics on top of more than $3 billion already promised to some individual allies. The presidents of the republics making up the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec) met in Moscow on Wednesday. With Armenia having an observer status in the Russian-led grouping, President Serzh Sarkisian also took part in the summit. Moscow has already won major political concessions from Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. After securing a $2.15 billion Russian rescue package this week, the Kyrgyz government announced the impending closure of a U.S. military base in the Central Asian state. Russia itself has been hit hard by the global recession and, in particular, the sharp decline in international prices of oil and other commodities. Its stock markets have lost three quarters of their value and gold and currency reserves plummeted to under $390 billion from more than $600 billion last summer. Large-scale external assistance is vital for the success of the government’s efforts to minimize the global downturn’s impact on the Armenian economy. The World Bank announced last week that it will provide Armenia with up to $800 million in loans in the next four years. More than $80 million of the promised funding is due to be disbursed this month. These loans will be used for rural infrastructure projects and channeled into small and medium-sized businesses through Armenian commercial banks. The Gazeta.ru online magazine writes in its “Buy a little USSR” article, “no one asks the simplest questions in Russia. For example, why would Russia grant millions of USD to certain CIS countries in conditions of international crisis and they make unrealistic military alliances with them.” Another online Russian source reminds, “the crisis may last for three years and because of inflation the population gets even more skeptical about the future. Under these conditions the presidents of neighboring countries visit Moscow and leave with millions of dollars.” The newspapers and political analysts themselves answer why Russia demonstrates itself so generous by offering its resources. Two of the reasons are the installation of air defense in Belarus and removal of US military base from Kyrgyzstan. One of the sources disdains in this regard, “If we observe the actions of the Kremlin we have an impression that neither the broad-scale nor “green” crisis affect Russia, which by growing rapidly annihilates the pensions and salaries of budgetary employees. No Russia is dealing with its adversaries and deployed all its resources to defend itself from the adversary.” In addition to this the Russian media also speaks about the possibility of creation of NATO-like Russian organization. By the way, the Russian journalists are skeptical about this initiative as well. The Novaya Gazeta writes, “Our NATO unites such powerful states as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with certain conditions.” The newspaper also adverted to the statement of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said that “these forces will work in regular conditions.” It’s not clear for the author what “regular conditions” means or whether it means that if NKR war resumes Russia will fight next to Armenians. “And which are these regular conditions? Is that the repression of the possibility of color revolutions?” All this has caused the discontent of the Russians not only because of the fact that the Russian taxpayers paid for the creation of these quasi-imperial pleasures but also because of the fact that they find them senseless and useless. “The billions of presents that they are sending to our ally states don’t guarantee that these states will stay loyal to Russia. We are trying to buy them at very expensive price especially during the period of crisis,” writes one of the Russian dailies. By the way the same topic in different emphases is also in the focus of the western media as well. Le Monde, the New York Times, Washington Times and the Guardian have also adverted to the theme of Russia offering a 500 USD loan to Armenia. They believe that Russia is trying to restore its empire with money. Among these sources the Times makes several interesting statements about Armenia. By speaking about the fact that Russia gradually fortifies its influence zones in Middle Asia and in other regions the author addresses certain countries among them, including Armenia. “Armenia is a little more than just a vessel state because it has sold most of its economic strategic objects to Russian companies.” Moreover, the author of the article hints that despite being an ally to Russia and member of the Collective Security Pact Armenia cannot count on Russia’s eternal support. “The existing frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan gives even more levers to the Kremlin. Moscow refuted the allegations of Azerbaijani as though Russia gave 800 million USD worth arms to Armenia. Nevertheless, both of them realize that Russia may shift the balance on behalf of anyone they’d wish.”
