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Not a single cent of a $200 million concessional export loan provided by Russia to Armenia for increasing the range of modern weapons of the Armenian armed forces will be used for other purposes, Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia Ara Nazaryan said at the extraordinary session of Armenian parliament today, on July 2.

He made that statement in response to the question of Levon Zurabyan, head of the opposition faction ‘Armenian National Congress’, about whether the loan agreement terms allow the Armenian government to use funds for other purposes , in particular for subsidizing the increased electricity tariff.

“Not a single cent can be allocated for other purposes. The indicated sum of money is provided only for the purchase of Russian arms”, Nazaryan said adding that only Russian ammunitions the Armenian army has not had so far will be bought.

As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at the June 27 consultation with officials responsible for the economic policy in Armenia that cancelling the decision on power tariff rise is “very dangerous”. For this reason the government will cover the tariff rise until the conclusion (of an audit of Electric Networks of Armenia – editor), he said. “Of course, we will not pull out the ongoing programs or social expenditures, but will identify other resources among the means allotted for the further strengthening of (energy) security. Certainly, our security issues are far from being solved, to say the least, and yet that environment of suspicion and distrust that we have now, I think is another security issue and a very important one. And that must be solved. And if that conclusion [of the audit] confirms the price increase is well-based, from that moment on the consumers will begin paying the new tariff without having any suspicions. Should the conclusion confirm the increase had been groundless, the government would take measures to get refunds from the ENA on the amount surcharged, as well as bring to account those officials that failed on their duties»,” the president said noting that under such conditions the work that the government started a few months ago to change the owner of ENA will become a certainty, and the option of returning the company to the state and transferring it for competitive management is not ruled out.