Although there is much time till the presidential elections of 2008, the preelection campaign has already started. Arthur Baghdasaryan thinks that he is the main candidate and doesn’t take any steps without any meaning: all his activities as well as the celebrations prove this. Rumor has it that in the scopes of “Support for the National Assembly” program USAID has provided support of 2 million USD for Arthur Baghdasaryan. Before this they had provided more than 2 million USD for Arthur Baghdasaryan in the scopes of “Strengthening the National Assembly” program. It is not clear where this money was or going to be spent yet. According to our information the head of the NA is going to spend this money with the purpose of the presidential elections. It is worth to mention that on November 13 the NA and USAID made a “memorandum of mutual understanding”. This memorandum was made by the head of USAID office in Armenia Robin Philips and head of NA Arthur Baghdasaryan. Arthur Baghdasaryan said that this document was going to increase the role of the parliament in Armenia. The memorandum provides 2 million USD for program implementation, which goal is to strengthen the contacts of the NA with international community and local society. The program is also going to provide trainings for the NA staff, technical support, etc.. According to R. Philips this was the continuency of the program that started in 2004 and was going to provide 2 million USD. By the way a lot of people are surprised to learn that it has been a long time already since Tigran Karapetyan criticizes “Rule of Law” in his TV programs any more (ALM TV channel). We were informed by ALM staff that A.Baghdasaryan has bought computers and presented ALM with the money for “Support for the National Assembly” program of USAID. And they have also made an agreement to stop the black PR against “Rule of Law”.
