YEREVAN/JAN. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a week of failed negotiations, Russian oil and gas monopoly increased the price of gas that it sells to Armenia by 10%, a move many analysts interpreted as an economic slap on the wrist by the Kremlin to Armenia’s pro-Western government.

In response, Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s leader, said that he was going to intensify negotiations with Iran over increasing gas imports.

“The issue of Iranian gas deliveries is always on the agenda. We will keep discussing this matter until we find a practical and advantageous solution,” Russian news agencies quoted Mr Pashinyan as saying.

He had been in Moscow on Dec. 27 to try to negotiate down the gas price rise, so the Russian statement that it was intent on increasing prices will come be seen as a personal sleight.

Gazprom said that from Jan. 1 2019, Armenia would pay $165 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas, up from $150.

Since taking over as Armenia’s PM after a peaceful revolution in April and May 2018, Mr Pashinyan has had a strained relationship with Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been a frequent visitor to the Kremlin, has pushed for greater integration with Russia and has also sent a handful of de-miners and doctors to support Russia’s reconstruction efforts in Syria.

But his natural inclination is to lean to the West and his supporters are even more pro-Western. Last year, police in Armenia arrested several former senior pro-Russia Armenian government officials, including former President Robert Kocharyan and the head of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Yuri Khachaturov, and charged them with abuse of power over the shooting dead of anti-government protesters in 2008.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the charges against the former senior Armenian officials are politically motivated.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019