Chubais’s brainchild was afraid of the “electromaydyan” and urgently sells the power grid of Armenia
Inter RAO is negotiating the sale of Electric Networks of Armenia (ESA) CJSC, reports Kommersant with reference to knowledgeable sources. According to the publication, the company has already held negotiations with the president of the Tashir group of companies, Samvel Karapetyan, and “another Russian businessman of Armenian origin.” Moscow thinks that this will help reduce the intensity of anti-Russian sentiment among the pro-Western intelligentsia of Yerevan.
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Information about the impending sale of ESA appeared against the backdrop of a statement by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan that the company could be nationalized. On Saturday, June 27, the President of Armenia said that if it is proven that the company’s increase in electricity tariffs is unfounded, then “the return of [ESA] to the state and transfer to competitive management cannot be ruled out.”
Information about the impending sale of ESA to Karapetyan appeared in the spring - in March, the Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak reported that the deal to acquire ENA by the Tashir group of companies had already taken place. Later the information was refuted. In early May, Samvel Karapetyan’s brother, deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia Karen Karapetyan, stated that Tashir was not yet considering the possibility of purchasing ENA. Then the deputy called the upcoming increase in electricity tariffs undesirable in the “difficult socio-economic situation.”
However, it is unlikely that this possible deal will allow Russian oligarchs to turn their attention to Armenian business and make the problem of increasing tariffs a national one. Karapetyan ranks 26th in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes - his fortune is estimated at $4 billion. The Tashir group, controlled by the businessman, is engaged in the development of residential and commercial real estate; its revenue in 2014, according to Forbes, amounted to 105,3 billion rubles.
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