Epress.am News from Armenia
“Of course, it’s true that they’re exchanging Gagik Beglaryan for Karen Karapetyan; however, this is better. But who brought Gagik Beglaryan?” asked Armenia’s former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
“I don’t want to say anything for that which has already been done. But I don’t have any basis to be amazed by his work at ArmRosGazprom, where, during the 8 or 9 years he worked there, the price of gas in the domestic economy went from $8 to $190,” he said.
Bagratyan doesn’t believe that the new mayor will be better than the last, however, he believes that “this type of man is ‘more right’ than Beglaryan.”
“Most likely, Karen Karapetyan today is viewed as a candidate for mayor, because, it’s obvious, everyone wants to remove the prime minister [from office],” he said. According to the economist, all those in the ruling elite, including the president, are “fed up” with Armenia’s current prime minister.
“A less likely candidate is Vache Gabrielyan, who also will work well, he won’t do anything [presumably wrong], but, unlike [RA Prime Minister] Tigran Sargsyan] he won’t make incomprehensible speeches,” said Bagratyan.
Armenia’s former PM doesn’t consider the recent changes in government staffing to be the beginning of reforms because, according to him, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan won’t make such reforms: “Just when he sees that there’s no other way, he has to imitate making reforms, so as not to finally lose power.”
Bagratyan also noted that no criminal case will be launched against Yerevan’s former mayor because in that case, Beglaryan would become part of the opposition, and he just doesn’t believe that Gagik Beglaryan will join the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress: “Hard [to imagine] that there we will be amazed by him, but, at last count, he can be an opposition to himself.”