Leading KISS expert: The transfer to Kazakhstan of the concession to manage Armenia’s railways is a widely discussed issue in Yerevan

ArmInfo. The transfer to Kazakhstan of the concession to manage Armenia’s railways is a subject of considerable discussion in Yerevan. This was stated on September 24, in a conversation with an ArmInfo correspondent on the sidelines of the APRI Armenia 2026 forum, by Alisher Abdreshev, leading expert at the Department of European and American Studies of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KISS).

According to the expert, there should be no excessive debate or politicization on this issue. "Some work at the level of the governments of the two countries may probably be underway, but so far, at the expert level, we do not fully understand what conditions will be proposed and what practical aspects are being discussed," Abdreshev noted.

It should be recalled that back in February of this year, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan began raising the issue of the need to transfer the Russian concession to a third friendly party. He named Kazakhstan, the UAE and Qatar as possible options. On March 26, Pashinyan said that Yerevan had no objection to transferring the concession to manage the republic’s railways to a Kazakh company, if agreement on the issue was reached with Russia. He justified this by saying that Yerevan was allegedly losing its competitive advantages and that the railway issue should be resolved with Russia "in a friendly, fraternal spirit."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that Russian concession management of Armenia’s railways creates competitive disadvantages for the Armenian side strange. She stressed that the Russian operator is a structure that does not deprive the Republic of Armenia of competitive advantages but, on the contrary, creates them.

It is noteworthy that on April 6, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC (KTZ) and the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan stated that "the Kazakh side is currently not conducting negotiations on acquiring the Russian concession for the Armenian Railways."

It should be noted that CJSC "South Caucasus Railway" is a 100% subsidiary of OJSC

"Russian Railways." On February 13, 2008, in Yerevan, OJSC "Russian Railways" and the Republic of Armenia signed

a concession agreement on transferring the republic’s railway transport system

under the management of CJSC "South Caucasus Railway."  According to the agreement, the concession management term is 30 years, with the right to extend it for another 10 years after the first twenty years of operation, by mutual consent of the parties. The tasks of CJSC "South Caucasus Railway" include modernizing the railway infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia, developing cooperation with the states neighboring Armenia, and developing domestic and international passenger and freight services.  The amount of investment made by the Company is $572 million. CJSC "South Caucasus Railway" began its operations on June 1, 2008.