Head of the Committee for the State and Legal Affairs, Republican Parliamentarian David Haroutiunyan has been elected as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee to study the 'gas agreements' between Armenia and Russia.
Mikael Melkumyan, a member of Prosperous Armenia Party will be deputy head of the committee. The ad hoc committee will comprise 10 people, including 4 from Republican Party (David Haroutiunyan, Gagik Minasyan, Vardan Ayvazyan, and Khosrov Haroutiunyan), 2 from Prosperous Armenia (Mikael Melkumyan and Gurgen Arsenyan), by one representative from ANC (Aram Haroutunyan), Orinats Yerkir Party (Aghvan Vardanyan), and Heritage Party (Ruben Hakobyan). The parliament adopted a decision to hold the committee meetings behind the close doors.
The ad hoc committee has been set up following public discontent at the 'gas agreements' with Russia, particularly, the sale of the government's 20% share in AruRusgasprom to Gazprom, Russia, and increase of the gas tariff.
The Republican Party was against the idea of the ad hoc committee, but later it raised the issue in the parliament following President Serzh Sargsyan's demand to study the situation around the 'gas agreements' and punish the officials who made any illegal actions in the course of the negotiations and signing of the above documents.