ArmInfo.Former Prime Minister of Armenia, former First Deputy Chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Karen Karapetyan leaves the party.
According to the chairman of the RPA Organizing Committee, Ruben Tadevosyan, Karapetyan submitted a letter of resignation from the party and, according to the party's charter, he is no longer considered a Republican. Earlier, on June 21, Karen Karapetyan submitted a letter of resignation from the post of first deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, which was reported at the meeting of the party's executive body. Karapetyan joined the party on November 24, 2016, two months after his appointment to the post of prime minister.
To recall, Karen Karapetyan, before that, deputy general director for international projects of Gazprom Energoholding LLC, and prior to that the head of Gazprom-Armenia was appointed to the post of Prime Minister of Armenia on September 13, 2016. Mainly thanks to the figure of Karen Karapetyan, independent observers believe, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia managed to facilitate its victory in the parliamentary elections, which at that time became the "face and voice" of the RPA campaign. Karen Karapetyan continued to fulfill his duties as acting Prime Minister until the election of the new head of government on April 17, 2018, Serzh Sargsyan, after which he was appointed the first deputy prime minister. In the days of the velvet revolution- after the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan from the post of prime minister, he continued to fulfill his duties as acting prime minister. However, on May 8, Karapetyan submitted a petition to RA President Armen Sarkissian about the termination of his powers as the first deputy prime minister, as well as the acting prime minister.
Meanwhile, on October 25, the Kommersant newspaper reported that the former Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan could join the council of directors of the Russian company Zarubezhneft. According to the source, this appointment can be both a political gesture and a consequence of Karen Karapetyan's long career in Russian state-owned companies in 2000-2010. Kommersant named Russian businessmen Ruben Vardanyan and Samvel Karapetyan (the owner of the Tashir holding, not a relative of the former prime minister) as Karen Karapetyan's close friends. Zarubezhneft is a relatively small oil company against the background of industry leaders in the Russian Federation. In 2017, it produced 5.3 million tons of oil equivalent, the main assets are located in the Russian Federation and in Vietnam. In this case, the board of directors of the six people traditionally includes former senior officials. So, it is headed by the former head of the Federal Security Service, Yevgeny Murov, and already this year, the former minister of transport Maxim Sokolov joined the council. Membership in the board of directors of Zarubezhneft is well paid: the amount of remuneration in 2017 amounted to 38.8 million rubles. Artur Shamilov from TopContact believes that Karen Karapetyan's appointment in the board of directors of Zarubezhneft should be interpreted as recognition of his achievements in the development of bilateral cooperation. Trying to build good relations with the new government of Armenia, the government of the Russian Federation gives a signal to the Armenian elites that they do not forget the previous political leaders, he said. This is a consistent policy, adds Mr. Shamilov, citing the example of Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, who is on the board of directors of Rosneft.