{"id":49049,"date":"2010-11-15T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T05:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/2010\/11\/15\/armenian-singer-condemns-officials-who-steal-from-the-state-treasury\/"},"modified":"2010-11-15T05:18:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-15T05:18:00","slug":"armenian-singer-condemns-officials-who-steal-from-the-state-treasury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2010\/11\/15\/armenian-singer-condemns-officials-who-steal-from-the-state-treasury.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Singer Condemns Officials who &#8216;Steal from the State Treasury&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Popular Armenian singer-songwriter Ruben Hakhverdyan would like Armenia&#8217;s authorities to be &#8220;more developed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">&#8220;The most satiated among them throw their money to the wind. I&#8217;ve seen how much they gamble in casinos and how they throw around their dollars,&#8221; he said at a press conference today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Hakhverdyan described a recent visit to a casino with an unnamed gambler: &#8220;He lost about 20,000 dollars. I said, if you gave it to me, I would record an album. He said, didn&#8217;t you see? It&#8217;s finished.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Oligarchs having money doesn&#8217;t anger the singer: &#8220;The man is a businessman, he&#8217;s working [for] his money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">&#8220;What I am disgusted by is that a [state] official, beginning from the president to the office worker, can be richer than the most wealthy,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">This phenomenon he called in Russian &#8220;stealing from the treasury&#8221; \u2014 &#8220;When officials grab and devour from the state budget or state resources those funds which, let&#8217;s say, come from abroad and have to serve some purpose or another.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">As for running for office, Hakhverdyan wants none of that. Asked what he would do if he were appointed prime minister, he said: &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t become [prime minister], because executions might begin.&#8221; He would have to capture many and force them to serve time in prison, he said, &#8220;definitely.&#8221;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Popular Armenian singer-songwriter&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[14875],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}