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SYMBOLISM AND PRAGMATISM: ON THE RESULTS OF THE MEETING BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIA
Politkom.ru
Aug 9 2012
Russia
by Candidate of Historical Sciences Sergey Minasyan, leader of
Yerevan's Caucasus Institute Department of Political Research
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan paid a working visit to Moscow 8
August 2012 at the invitation of his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin.
Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin. -Search using:Biographies
Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 DaysThe visit was highly symbolic
whereas its results themselves demonstrated the pragmatism of
the perception by the presidents of Armenia and Russia both of
the directly bilateral relations between the two states and of the
assessment of the large-scale geopolitical processes in the South
Caucasus and adjoining regions.
The symbolism was dictated, first and foremost, by the actual date of
the visit, evidently proposed by the Russian side for reasons that are
absolutely not coincidental. A meeting with the Armenian president
specifically on the fourth anniversary of the start of the August
"Five-Day War" between Russian and Georgia could have been dictated
by Vladimir Putin's Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin's -Search
using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayscharacteristic
and distinctive sense of "political humour" and could also contain
a certain, entirely unambiguous symbolism for all the countries
of the South Caucasus. After all, in the perception of the current
Kremlin boss (and not just him, furthermore), the August 2008 war
is a distinctive symbolic turning point after which the decline
in Russia's geopolitical influence in the post-Soviet area and the
South Caucasus in particular was halted and even reversed. During
the press conference on the results of the meeting with his Armenian
colleague, Vladimir Putin Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin
-Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayshimself
confirmed the symbolism of the situation, delivering a series of
"revelations" which were supposed to confirm his role in particular
as prime minister in the adoption of the fateful decision on Russia's
entry into the war with Georgia on the night of 7-8 August.
However, the aim of the two presidents' meeting was not simply to
deliver certain messages and "synchronize watches" on a broad range
of current geopolitical and political questions. Even though it
is obvious that the situation in Syria, for example, where there
is a large Armenian community, primarily in this country's second
most important city Aleppo, could not fail to be raised in the two
presidents' conversation. There was also a discussion of the question
of preserving peace and stability in the Karabakh conflict zone,
prospects for the continuation of the negotiating process, and the
possibility of the contribution to this of Russia, as a co-chairman of
the Minsk OSCE group and the leading regional power. Of course, only
the two presidents themselves and their immediate circle of advisers
can know what else specifically they talked about and what they agreed
on. However, from the subsequent comments of the presidents themselves
and from media reports it is obvious that the sides managed to agree
or bring their positions closer on a quite broad range of questions
of mutual interest to relations between two strategic allies.
In particular, there was an announcement on the coordination of
the approach to the price-setting procedure for Russian gas for
Armenia for the near future. It seems that prices for Russian energy
resources will again remain comparatively favourable for Russia's
only strategic ally in the South Caucasus. Similarly, there was an
announcement on the attainment of new accords in the military-political
and military-technical spheres including regarding the implementation
of joint military-industrial projects. Questions of mutual relations
within the framework of the CSTO were also discussed, particularly
in the light of this organization's large-scale exercises that are
expected at the start of September on Armenia's territory with the
participation of subunits from all the military-political bloc's
member countries.
Pragmatism was also shown during the discussion of questions connected
with cooperation within the framework of various integration projects
in the post-Soviet area. In particular, it was announced that separate
talks will be held with all the countries belonging to the Customs
Union on the format and degree of cooperation with Armenia, which
does not have a common border with the countries in question. In fact
this means that the practical implementation of this question is being
postponed fairly indefinitely. This is all the more remarkable given
that even before the visit vague commentaries appeared in the press to
the effect that the main theme of Putin's talks with Sargsyan would be
the question of Armenia's participation in the Eurasian Union (Vladimir
Putin Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin -Search using:Biographies
Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Daysmade a statement on the need for
the creation of this on the basis of the Customs Union and the Single
Economic Area in one of his pre-election articles in October 2011). It
was said that Moscow could place before official Yerevan the question
of the choice between future membership of the Eurasian Union and
the continuation of the processes of cooperation with the EU in the
political, humanitarian, and economic spheres within the framework
of the European Neighbourhood and Eastern Partnership programmes.
However, at the same time the authors of publications of this kind,
evidently, had simply not take into account such an obvious fact
that the idea of the creation of such a supra-state formation on the
territory of the former USSR is still a very long way from practical
implementation and all talk of this kind at the present time is
almost of a purely theoretical or ideological character. Even the
broadest outlines of the Eurasian union (if in the future they go
beyond the bounds of the inertia of the pre-election promises of former
presidential candidate Vladimir PutinEnhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir
Putin -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Days)
are surely still unclear at the moment even to the Kremlin itself.
Furthermore, the question of Armenia's participation in a
political-economic union of this kind given the absence of common
customs borders with any of the states potentially belonging to it is
contrary to elementary logic -it only needs a fleeting glance at the
map. Armenia is separated from the rest of the potential Eurasian Union
by Georgia and Azerbaijan, with their quite specific relations with
Moscow and Yerevan. It seems that these circumstances with a healthy
level of pragmatism are entirely obvious to the leaders of Armenia
and Russia, as the results of the 8 August visit also confirmed.
During the meeting with Vladimir Putin, Enhanced Coverage
LinkingVladimir Putin, -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most
Recent 60 DaysSerzh Sargsyan invited his Russian colleague to pay a
state visit to Armenia at a time convenient to him. Whether Putin's
visit to Armenia will take place in the near future, whether it will
coincide with the CSTO exercises in this republic planned for the start
of September this year, or whether it will be postponed to a later date
will largely symbolize the degree of urgency of the agreements reached
that are traditionally resolved by the political elites of Armenia
and Russia at the level of realistic, mutually beneficial pragmatism.
[Translated from Russian]
From: Baghdasarian
Politkom.ru
Aug 9 2012
Russia
by Candidate of Historical Sciences Sergey Minasyan, leader of
Yerevan's Caucasus Institute Department of Political Research
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan paid a working visit to Moscow 8
August 2012 at the invitation of his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin.
Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin. -Search using:Biographies
Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 DaysThe visit was highly symbolic
whereas its results themselves demonstrated the pragmatism of
the perception by the presidents of Armenia and Russia both of
the directly bilateral relations between the two states and of the
assessment of the large-scale geopolitical processes in the South
Caucasus and adjoining regions.
The symbolism was dictated, first and foremost, by the actual date of
the visit, evidently proposed by the Russian side for reasons that are
absolutely not coincidental. A meeting with the Armenian president
specifically on the fourth anniversary of the start of the August
"Five-Day War" between Russian and Georgia could have been dictated
by Vladimir Putin's Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin's -Search
using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayscharacteristic
and distinctive sense of "political humour" and could also contain
a certain, entirely unambiguous symbolism for all the countries
of the South Caucasus. After all, in the perception of the current
Kremlin boss (and not just him, furthermore), the August 2008 war
is a distinctive symbolic turning point after which the decline
in Russia's geopolitical influence in the post-Soviet area and the
South Caucasus in particular was halted and even reversed. During
the press conference on the results of the meeting with his Armenian
colleague, Vladimir Putin Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin
-Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayshimself
confirmed the symbolism of the situation, delivering a series of
"revelations" which were supposed to confirm his role in particular
as prime minister in the adoption of the fateful decision on Russia's
entry into the war with Georgia on the night of 7-8 August.
However, the aim of the two presidents' meeting was not simply to
deliver certain messages and "synchronize watches" on a broad range
of current geopolitical and political questions. Even though it
is obvious that the situation in Syria, for example, where there
is a large Armenian community, primarily in this country's second
most important city Aleppo, could not fail to be raised in the two
presidents' conversation. There was also a discussion of the question
of preserving peace and stability in the Karabakh conflict zone,
prospects for the continuation of the negotiating process, and the
possibility of the contribution to this of Russia, as a co-chairman of
the Minsk OSCE group and the leading regional power. Of course, only
the two presidents themselves and their immediate circle of advisers
can know what else specifically they talked about and what they agreed
on. However, from the subsequent comments of the presidents themselves
and from media reports it is obvious that the sides managed to agree
or bring their positions closer on a quite broad range of questions
of mutual interest to relations between two strategic allies.
In particular, there was an announcement on the coordination of
the approach to the price-setting procedure for Russian gas for
Armenia for the near future. It seems that prices for Russian energy
resources will again remain comparatively favourable for Russia's
only strategic ally in the South Caucasus. Similarly, there was an
announcement on the attainment of new accords in the military-political
and military-technical spheres including regarding the implementation
of joint military-industrial projects. Questions of mutual relations
within the framework of the CSTO were also discussed, particularly
in the light of this organization's large-scale exercises that are
expected at the start of September on Armenia's territory with the
participation of subunits from all the military-political bloc's
member countries.
Pragmatism was also shown during the discussion of questions connected
with cooperation within the framework of various integration projects
in the post-Soviet area. In particular, it was announced that separate
talks will be held with all the countries belonging to the Customs
Union on the format and degree of cooperation with Armenia, which
does not have a common border with the countries in question. In fact
this means that the practical implementation of this question is being
postponed fairly indefinitely. This is all the more remarkable given
that even before the visit vague commentaries appeared in the press to
the effect that the main theme of Putin's talks with Sargsyan would be
the question of Armenia's participation in the Eurasian Union (Vladimir
Putin Enhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir Putin -Search using:Biographies
Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Daysmade a statement on the need for
the creation of this on the basis of the Customs Union and the Single
Economic Area in one of his pre-election articles in October 2011). It
was said that Moscow could place before official Yerevan the question
of the choice between future membership of the Eurasian Union and
the continuation of the processes of cooperation with the EU in the
political, humanitarian, and economic spheres within the framework
of the European Neighbourhood and Eastern Partnership programmes.
However, at the same time the authors of publications of this kind,
evidently, had simply not take into account such an obvious fact
that the idea of the creation of such a supra-state formation on the
territory of the former USSR is still a very long way from practical
implementation and all talk of this kind at the present time is
almost of a purely theoretical or ideological character. Even the
broadest outlines of the Eurasian union (if in the future they go
beyond the bounds of the inertia of the pre-election promises of former
presidential candidate Vladimir PutinEnhanced Coverage LinkingVladimir
Putin -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Days)
are surely still unclear at the moment even to the Kremlin itself.
Furthermore, the question of Armenia's participation in a
political-economic union of this kind given the absence of common
customs borders with any of the states potentially belonging to it is
contrary to elementary logic -it only needs a fleeting glance at the
map. Armenia is separated from the rest of the potential Eurasian Union
by Georgia and Azerbaijan, with their quite specific relations with
Moscow and Yerevan. It seems that these circumstances with a healthy
level of pragmatism are entirely obvious to the leaders of Armenia
and Russia, as the results of the 8 August visit also confirmed.
During the meeting with Vladimir Putin, Enhanced Coverage
LinkingVladimir Putin, -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most
Recent 60 DaysSerzh Sargsyan invited his Russian colleague to pay a
state visit to Armenia at a time convenient to him. Whether Putin's
visit to Armenia will take place in the near future, whether it will
coincide with the CSTO exercises in this republic planned for the start
of September this year, or whether it will be postponed to a later date
will largely symbolize the degree of urgency of the agreements reached
that are traditionally resolved by the political elites of Armenia
and Russia at the level of realistic, mutually beneficial pragmatism.
[Translated from Russian]
From: Baghdasarian