Russian Security Council: In Armenia, they want to force Russian asset owners to dispose of their assets

ArmInfo. The Armenian authorities are seeking to devalue Russian assets in order to force their owners to dispose of them. As reported by TASS, this was stated to journalists by Alexey Shevtsov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council (SC) of the Russian Federation. "We are seeing signs that the next targets ("raider takeovers" - TASS note) may be Russian industrial and infrastructure enterprises in Armenia," he stated.

According to Shevtsov, "claims are being promoted about their underfunding, negative impact on the investment climate, environmental damage caused by their activities, and low employee wages." "This is being done to devalue Russian assets and force their owners to dispose of them," the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council said.

Shevtsov warned that "such tactics will be a genuine "shot in the foot" for the Armenian economy, given that Russian businesses have created tens of thousands of jobs for the republic and are effectively managing their assets on legal grounds, making a significant contribution to Armenia's GDP."

Earlier, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu stated that an unfriendly course and blatant "double standards" were being displayed toward Russian businesses operating in Armenia, and that what was happening to enterprises and entire industries in which Russia had invested billions could be called a raider takeover.

"We note that pressure from official Yerevan is being exerted not only on Russian businesses, but also on Armenian entrepreneurs who disagree with the policy of [Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan and are in opposition," Shevtsov said. As an example, he recalled that in July, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik Tsarukyan, "had major assets seized - the Yerevan Brandy, Wine and Vodka Factory Yerevan Noy and the AraratCement plant, which led to production downtime, losses and social unrest among the enterprises' employees."

"As we can see, economic "sticks and raiding" are becoming a perfectly practical tool of the Armenian authorities, who are pursuing a policy beneficial to them of worsening conditions for Russian companies and their own citizens employed by them, as well as "clearing" the political field of their main competitors," the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council stressed.