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Economist Suren Parsyan on Monday reacted to the closure of the Stepantsminda-Larsi highway, which connects Armenia and Russia via Georgia, due to damage caused by heavy rains.

“Various reports suggest that the road maintenance work may take 1-2 weeks,” he wrote on Facebook.

"Now is the most active period of agricultural exports, so even a few days of downtime will cause great damage to exporters and farmers.

“Amid the closure of the Upper Lars checkpoint, the devaluation of the dollar and the rise in fuel prices, exporters have already suffered great losses and will simply not sustain another blow; they will go bankrupt, also leading thousands of farms to bankruptcy,” the economist said.

He urged the Armenian government to immediately start talks with other regional countries to use an alternative temporary road.