How to defend the honest earning of the businessman official
In Armenia no one dares to even assume even at the expert level how much money the Armenian businessmen lost as a result of the banking crisis in Cyprus.
For the case of Russia they mention different numbers from 40 to 100 billion. Kazakh MPs urged their government to undertake means to rescue the savings of their businessmen in the amount of approximately 1 billion Euros. Of course, unlike the Russians, the savings of the Armenian businessmen are much less but they also prefer to keep their savings in foreign banks. At least we have grounds to assume that Armenians keep their savings in Cyprus because a part of the Armenian mining companies are registered as offshore companies in Cyprus and the bank accounts are in Cyprus. This means that the nationalization of the banking actives of Cyprus wouldn’t avoid causing damage to Armenian companies and businessmen.
A part of the people claim that the Armenian capital saved in Cyprus is nearly four billion. Others are mentioning lower numbers. If we base on the fact that in Cyprus about 80% of the saved accounts will be nationalized then we realize that we are talking about billions of dollars, which is equivalent to the Armenian budget. As a response to this question the Armenian businessmen lift their shoulders and smile with uncertainty. None of them gives a reasonable answer.
“In general, nobody will ever announce how much money he has and in what bank he saves. The reason is that people will ask where the money came from because nobody will save the fair earnings in a foreign bank,” says one of the Armenian officials, who refuses to mention his name. What to the Armenian authorities do in order to prevent these losses and the future ones. It turns out that it is unfair because they are selling the ore of Armenia and the financial means are being pocketed. These savings are kept in the banks of Cyprus.
Then these accounts are being frozen. As in Armenia they officially do not accept they have savings in Cyprus we may assume that there won’t be any insurance on the accounts either. And the threat that the Armenian businessmen may be losing all their funds from foreign banks gradually grows. Let’s explain how. In the beginning of March the Russian authorities at the legislative level forbade their officials to have accounts in foreign countries.
And the ones, who already have such accounts were instructed to get rid of them. By July 1, the ministers of Russia, the MPs, attorneys, governors and other high-rank officials, will have to move their accounts to Russia. And the capital of Russia officials counts billions of dollars. If they simultaneously close their accounts it might cause a serious financial crisis in the world. As a result of this, Armenian businessmen will suffer as well. The problem is not that we are concerned about the funds of Armenian businessmen or statesmen.
The problem is that this money has been gained at the expense of Armenia. In Russia and Kazakhstan they don’t announce that the officials should get deprived of the possibility to pillage the ore of the country or by privatizing the state funds. You cannot reach any goals with such unrealistic demands. They demand that the officials, who made money at the expense of the ore of their respective countries to hold their funds in the banks of their countries and not abroad. Perhaps in Armenia we should also adopt a law that the Armenian official should save their “earned” money in the banks of Armenia in order to invest in the country. Or is it better to lose these funds in Cyprus instead of investing in Armenia.
By Avetis Babajanyan
