Russia Acts to Keep Ties with Armenia Strong

The April 23 announcement that Russia and Armenia are entering into a joint uranium excavation venture underscores the Kremlin's strong commitment to maintaining Yerevan's allegiance.

Armenia has long been Russia's closest ally in the South Caucasus. As Armenia prepares to hold parliamentary elections in May, Russian officials have seemed keen to play up the close bilateral ties, while striving to avoid creating an impression of meddling in Armenian domestic politics.

Armenian Ecology Minister Vartan Aivazian and Sergei Kiriyenko, a former Russian prime minister who now heads the country's Atomic Energy Agency, announced the uranium extraction project following a meeting in Yerevan. The joint venture is expected to get underway this year, Kiriyenko indicated, adding that Moscow was ready to help Yerevan build a new nuclear energy plant, in the event that Armenian officials opted to head in that direction. Aivazian also announced that Yerevan had agreed to join the international uranium enrichment center, located in Russia's Irkutsk region.

A higher profile display of friendship occurred earlier in April, when Russia's first deputy prime minister and rumored presidential successor, Sergei Ivanov, visited the Armenian capital. "I think Armenia is our strategic partner. This is gauged not only by military and political interest", Ivanov told journalists in Yerevan, where he held meetings with all the country's top officials, including President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

No deals were signed during Ivanov's April 11 visit. Officially, Kocharian and Ivanov just discussed economic ties. Perhaps the most important point of Ivanov's visit was his meeting with Kocharian's perceived successor, Prime Minister Sarkisian. Officially, both officials also focused on economic issues, including transportation routes. Ivanov reportedly told Sarkisian that the opening of a ferry route from Russian Black Sea ports to the Georgian coastal city of Poti would ease transportation difficulties between Russia and Armenia. The ferry, which is capable of carrying up to 50 rail carriages, would improve access to Armenia, Ivanov said, without mentioning that the ferry would also come as a move toward relaxing Russia's ban on transport with Georgia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Russia remains the top foreign investor in Armenia, Ivanov told a briefing in Yerevan on April 11. According to official statistics, Russia was Armenia's leading foreign investor in 2006, pumping about $87 million into the Armenian economy, including investments in ArmenAl, ArmenTel and ArmRosgazprom. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

There are several sources of tension in bilateral relations, however. Ivanov indicated Russia's dissatisfaction with an agreement under which Armenia swapped assets in return for debt relief. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The quality of the Armenian enterprises taken over by Russia has not met the Kremlin's expectations, Ivanov hinted. Sarkisian expressed the Armenian government's willingness to revisit the issue.

Sarkisian also echoed the Russian view that the South Caucasus should not become the home of a possible North Atlantic Treaty Organization base. Armenia's neighbor, Georgia, has expressed the intent to join NATO at the earliest possible moment. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Sarkisian said a NATO base in the region would dramatically increase tension in an already tense region. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. "The reduction of Russia's military presence in the region should not result in the automatically increased military presence of another country or organization," Sarkisian said at the April 11 news conference.

Meanwhile, some Armenian political figures have publicly questioned the need for Russia's on-going action to guarding Armenia's borders. On April 13, a former Armenian foreign minister, Raffi Hovannisian, called on Kocharian's administration to enhance Armenia's sovereignty by seeking to ease Russian border guards out, and for Yerevan-controlled troops to assume responsibility for the control of the country's borders.

In Yerevan, Ivanov defended the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia, saying it did not threaten the security of third countries, while ensuring the security of Armenia and Russia.