Russian Ambassador: The concession agreement for Armenian railways was drawn up on unprecedentedly favorable terms for Armenia

ArmInfo. Armenia and Russia held very constructive, business-like, and very concrete talks regarding the activities of major Russian companies in the republic. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin in an interview with the Public Radio of Armenia, touching on Armenian-Russian cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy and infrastructure.

The diplomat recalled that he attended meetings between Alexey Likhachev, Director General of the Rosatom State Corporation, and Oleg Belozerov, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Russian Railways, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"In my opinion, the discussion was very constructive and business-like, and very concrete." "The Russian side has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate a complete willingness to cooperate, taking into account the interests and needs expressed by the Armenian side, whether it be cooperation in nuclear energy or transportation," Kopyrkin said.

The Russian ambassador stated that he was even surprised when the head of Russian Railways presented an analysis of the Russian concession. "I was impressed that the concession agreement itself was drawn up on exceptionally favorable, perhaps even unprecedentedly favorable, terms for the Armenian side," he said.

On August 24, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking from the parliamentary rostrum, called on Russia to show flexibility and sell the concession for Armenian railways to a friendly third party. He also announced a proposal to purchase the concession for $400 million. Pashinyan emphasized that if Russia were to manage the Armenian railway network under a concession, Armenia could lose its historic opportunity to integrate into the international railway network.

As a reminder, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan first voiced the proposal to sell the railway concession to Russia on February 13.

At that time, in a conversation with journalists, he stated that Russia's concessionary management of Armenia's railways created competitive problems for Armenia, and many international partners wanted to bypass Armenian territory when implementing infrastructure projects. In this vein, he suggested that Russia consider selling the concession to a third, friendly country. He suggested Kazakhstan, the UAE, or Qatar as examples.

Russia called Pashinyan's claims groundless and stated that it does not intend to sell the concession for Armenian railways.

As a reminder, SCR CJSC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian Railways OJSC. On February 13, 2008, a concession agreement was signed in Yerevan between Russian Railways OJSC and the Republic of Armenia transferring the republic's rail transport system to the management of SCR CJSC. 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 agreement of the parties. SCR CJSC's responsibilities include include the modernization of the RA railway infrastructure, the development of cooperation with states neighboring Armenia, and the development of domestic and international passenger and freight traffic. The amount of investments made by the Company is $572 million. CJSC "SCR" began its activities on June 1, 2008.