The opponents of the gas deal with
Russia do not want to face the truth. They only try to denigrate everything
done by the authorities of Armenia, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said
when replying the questions of the participants in the congress of Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers held in
Yerevan today.
He thinks that the relatively low price of the Russian
gas for the Armenian consumers is an achievement of the talks held on 2 December 2013 when the gas
agreement was signed. He said that this price is linked with that at the
Russian local market.
As for $300 million debt which arose in 2011, it is
the result of the fact that the gas price has not grown since 2011, he
said. "Since 2011 I have
reiterated that the gas price will not grow for ordinary citizens, but this
does not at all mean that the price did not grow at all. We were simply doing
everything possible for our citizens not to feel this burden. Moreover, for
three years we were conducting long and difficult negotiations with the Russian
party on this matter", - Sargsyan said and added that theoretically they
could not negotiate, but in that case ordinary citizens would be forced to pay
those $300 million.
When commenting of sale of 20% shares of the
government in the "ArmRusgasprom" to the Russian party for a low
price, Sargsyan said that there was no guarantee that if they held a tender,
the shares would be sold, for instance, for $30 million. "I assure you,
that if today there is somebody who wants to buy these 20% of shares for $100
million, I am ready to annul the agreement with the Russian party and sell our
share for the above-mentioned cost. As for our opponents, I advice them to
negotiate with Russia and gain more beneficial conditions of the Russian gas
purchase", - the president said.
Asked why the gas agreement
was signed for 30 years, Sargsyan replied that the agreement for 30 years
foresees making investments. "What
i funds in 5 or 30 years?", - the president asked.