The RA energy minister Armen Movsisyan and head of “Armrusgazard” company said that there had been no official information on the part of Russia regarding gasoline price increase. Currently Armenia imports gasoline from Russia and pays 56 USD for 1.000 c.m. of gas. It is worth to mention that Russia increased the gasoline prices for Georgia several years ago and currently sells gasoline with special prices only to Ukraine and Belarus. Armenia currently gets gas for special prices only due to the fact that Armenia is the base of Russia in this region and does what they say: starting from the agreement of “Property against debt” program and ending up with staying apart from different regional political and economical programs. We can say that this announcement was political and that Russia threatens Armenia. There have been these kinds of announcements before too, but experience shows that Armenia always makes some compromises in order to get gasoline for special prices from its “strategic partner”. It is true that Russia threatens Ukraine too, but this is not a justification for us.
So what will happen in Armenia if gasoline is imported and sold at expensive prices?
It is worth to mention that every day about 4-5 million c.m gasoline is imported in Armenia. “Armrusgazard” is planning on importing 1.700 million c.m. gas in 2005. 1.460 c.m. of this capacity has already been imported. According to “Armrusgazard” during the first nine months of this year 25,5 % of the used gas was used by citizens, 25,3 % was used with production purposes and 37 % was used by energy producers. I.e. the gasoline price increase doesn’t mean that we are going to pay more money for only using gasoline in our apartments, but this means that we are going to pay twice more for everything that we use. This will create a bad situation in our domestic market and for our export.
So what should we do?
“We must do what Georgia did. I mean we must find another source of gasoline import. In this case the source is Iran. The other option is that we must be a transit country for gasoline to Europe. In this case Armenia will get much profit and will cover the loss incurred by Russia. Look, currently Russia is planning on importing gas from Kazakhstan. Each country must try to find several sources for product. I am sure that if the problem of Karabakh conflict was solved we would have three players: Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan”, -said economist Edward Aghadjanov.
It doesn’t depend on whether this announcement is official or not, the price will be increased. Ambassador Smbatyan would say: “we must understand this, Russia has its interests”. It has been spoken much that Armenia uses as much gasoline as a city in Russia that has 200 k population. This means that there are no economical interests for Russia here.
“Now one of the most factors and leverages for Russian policy are their energetic resources. Even their foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov threatens CIS countries and says that in case they don’t listen to them they will increase the prices for gasoline. This means that we deal with a very weak country, because no strong country makes these kinds of ultimatums. This means that there are no other leverages for Russian foreign affairs policy. And by using this leverage Russia wants to control the CIS independent countries. But we do what they want without this leverage too”, -said Mr. Aghadjanov.
“Armrusgazard” sells gasoline twice as expensive to users (59.000 dram) after buying it for 56 USD at the border. And it is clear that they will sell gasoline for twice an expensive price or a little bit cheaper after buying it for 120 dollars. And this company will justify this increase of prices by saying that they have to make investments and that they still keep little profit. The national commission of price regulation will reduce the prices a little bit in order to show that it is independent and then will confirm. And we will have to pay twice more at the end of the month. Armenia has made compromises for Russia so much (even in connection with being their base in the region), that has stopped thinking about its own interests. But our experts are happy about this and they say we have to ask Russia ourselves to increase the prices for gasoline up to the European level.
“Yes, we must ask Russia to raise the special price and let us be independent. We agree with those international prices, but Armenia must be a transit country on the way from Iran to Western countries so we can cover the difference of prices and our losses. Believe me that in this case we will have extra profits and our economy will develop. We need real independence”, -said Mr. Aghadjanov.