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CUSTOMS UNION: ARMENIA MAKES DEMANDS WHILE THE SUN SHINES
EurasiaNet.org
Feb 25 2014
February 25, 2014 - 1:19pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
With Ukraine now a lost cause for the Customs Union, Russia's Vladimir
Putin has checked in with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
to see how Armenia's plans to join the Customs Union are coming along.
For Russia, Armenia is a poor substitute for Ukraine, but still a
victory in Moscow's efforts to assert its broader economic clout
through the trade bloc.
Prime Minister Sarkisian seems to have seized on that status to lodge
a request with Moscow to keep the investments coming and to underwrite
some of the legal and institutional changes that Armenia needs to
meet the upcoming trade club's membership rules by 2015. Yerevan also
needs resources to keep selling Armenians on the idea of pushing the
country into what many claim will be an economic throwback to the USSR.
And it may need more than that. On February 24, ex-President Robert
Kocharian sounded off against the way Yerevan will waltz through the
door of the Customs Union. Believed by many to be positioning himself
for a potential political comeback, Kocharian increasingly has been
taking aim at Sarkisian's economic policies.
How far Kocharian could go with this is unclear. Memories of the
2008 bloodshed under his administration do not endear him uniformly
to Armenian voters. But his choice of topic could add at least some
fuel to the fire.
Angry over Russia tightening the screws on migrant workers and not
lowering gas prices and watching the desperate efforts in Ukraine
to keep Moscow at arm's length, many Armenians have strong second
thoughts about Putin's Customs Union. There is also growing anger
with various local economic policies that, some analysts believe,
may at some point snowball into a larger, anti-government movement.
To be clear, despite such disgruntlement, no EuroMaidan is expected
anytime soon in Armenia. But, as Ukraine showed, in the ongoing game
of checkers between the pro-EU and pro-CU camps in the Eurasian region,
the players' pieces can indeed move anywhere at any time.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68083
EurasiaNet.org
Feb 25 2014
February 25, 2014 - 1:19pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
With Ukraine now a lost cause for the Customs Union, Russia's Vladimir
Putin has checked in with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
to see how Armenia's plans to join the Customs Union are coming along.
For Russia, Armenia is a poor substitute for Ukraine, but still a
victory in Moscow's efforts to assert its broader economic clout
through the trade bloc.
Prime Minister Sarkisian seems to have seized on that status to lodge
a request with Moscow to keep the investments coming and to underwrite
some of the legal and institutional changes that Armenia needs to
meet the upcoming trade club's membership rules by 2015. Yerevan also
needs resources to keep selling Armenians on the idea of pushing the
country into what many claim will be an economic throwback to the USSR.
And it may need more than that. On February 24, ex-President Robert
Kocharian sounded off against the way Yerevan will waltz through the
door of the Customs Union. Believed by many to be positioning himself
for a potential political comeback, Kocharian increasingly has been
taking aim at Sarkisian's economic policies.
How far Kocharian could go with this is unclear. Memories of the
2008 bloodshed under his administration do not endear him uniformly
to Armenian voters. But his choice of topic could add at least some
fuel to the fire.
Angry over Russia tightening the screws on migrant workers and not
lowering gas prices and watching the desperate efforts in Ukraine
to keep Moscow at arm's length, many Armenians have strong second
thoughts about Putin's Customs Union. There is also growing anger
with various local economic policies that, some analysts believe,
may at some point snowball into a larger, anti-government movement.
To be clear, despite such disgruntlement, no EuroMaidan is expected
anytime soon in Armenia. But, as Ukraine showed, in the ongoing game
of checkers between the pro-EU and pro-CU camps in the Eurasian region,
the players' pieces can indeed move anywhere at any time.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68083