Russia’s biggest capital in Armenia
Electronic media spread information, according to which the employees of Russian companies in Armenia were internally assigned to take part in the protest rally against the new pension reform. It is hard to tell how many of the rally participants were from Russian companies but this fact is important not only in light of the protest against the pension reform but also in the political context. Especially after the statement of the Armenian president to join the Customs Union on September 3, every internal political event in Armenia is considered an initiative of Moscow because not only governmental but also opposition political forces are under the Russian influence. At any moment Russia can instigate unrest in Armenia, which can reach a level of revolution. Especially on the recent days the possibility of government impeachment has become popular again. Besides the Russian influence, parties claim that in Armenia the society has a major discontent and frustration towards political processes. They are also dissatisfied of the political system and political parties. The society is also discussing the conflict of interests between the civic groups and politics and some think that certain civil initiatives can reach more in the society than political parties in general. But let’s return to possible developments resulting in rallies. As we mentioned Russia is allegedly in control of the internal political life in Armenia. What is the ground of this influence of Russia? Is it only their covert pro-Russian political parties, who are trying to fill in squares with crowds? Of course not. Indeed, they can provide a certain number of protesters on the streets but Russia has a more powerful and efficient lever to make their intentions more doable. There is a huge number of Armenian employees working for Russian companies.
We don’t have an exact number though. But we can roughly claim that their number can reach dozens of thousands. First, according to official data, in Armenia there are approximately 1500 companies, which are fully or partly Russian and are based on the Russian capital. It is more interesting to see the number of employees in Russian companies, which top the list of major taxpayers of Armenia. Thus, the power company in Armenia has 7800 employees.
GazProm has 6000 employees. The South-Caucasus Railways has 4000 employees. Among the major taxpayers we should indeed mention Beeline, Viva Cell, Armenian nuclear station, which is de facto run by Russians, numerous small and medium businesses. Among the above facts we can assume that the number of employees reaches thousands. This means that if Russia decides to initiate a revolution on the street they will be relying not only on political forces but also employees of their companies. Of course, the internal order doesn’t mean that all employees will rush to the squares to protest. But if at some point Russia needs a maximum representation on the squares the organization of it will become merely a technical matter.
For examples, people will be sent on to squares just like in the soviet era, based in lists and roll calls. Having a job in Armenia is a sign of great luck and success and in order not to lose it may people will be willing not to lose it. And this is even more emphasized in light of the fact that the Armenian citizens are truly disappointed of the incumbent regime and leaders. It means that in critical situations they can gather on the streets at least 20-30 thousand people, which is an extremely large number to intensify the political situation or cause uprising. This is one of the logical and unavoidable consequences of turning in Armenia’s economy to Russia. In order to retain their power the Armenian government has gifted their major infrastructures to Russia. They haven’t calculated that it may have a counter effect and fire back at them.
By Mikael Sahakyan
