ArmInfo. In the political field of Armenia, Gagik Tsarukyan traditionally served the political interests of the main political actors of a given time period, independent analyst Saro Saroyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
''In return, Tsarukyan received the right to business benefits, which allowed him to ensure the continuous expansion of his business empire and constantly gain financial benefits. During the last quarter-century, Tsarukyan carried out this mission truly brilliantly. Almost all the heads of the administrations who ruled Armenia during this or that period were pleased with him,'' he noted.
It was through the fulfillment of the same mission that Tsarukyan, according to analysts, managed to maintain his empire even after 2018. What is happening today around his person, Saroyan, causes the failure of one of the elements of the notorious mission of Tsarukyan.
Searches were held at Tsarukyan's house in the morning of June 14, after which he went to the National Security Service for questioning. A protest by Tsarukyan's supporters was held near the NSS building, who consider the situation as political persecution. Police detained nearly a hundred protesters.
The analyst considers as obvious fact the transfer of Tsarukyan's business empire beyond the borders of Armenia in the last decade. Which in turn led to the interest of the Russian, Belarusian, Arab and other political elites in Tsarukyan's services. And at first glance, it seemed that Tsarukyan's talents for merging business with politics should have allowed him to avoid the prospect of being in the center of political processes unfavorable for him personally. Nevertheless, in the current situation, Saroyan notices such a cross-section of interests and specifically of the political actors themselves, which has trapped even Tsarukyan, who is experienced in this area. In this light, he sees the events of recent days as evidence of deep discontent and distrust of the current political leadership of Armenia regarding Tsarukyan and his services. All this was accompanied by discontent and distrust of Tsarukyan himself with regard to the government.
''Tsarukyan's ideas about the weight of current political actors led him to an open struggle with the current administration. First of all, by activating against this administration its own obvious failures in the fight against coronavirus. Under the conditions of the emergency regime, such shocks do not promise anything good to our country. The process of shattering and destroying any business empire is fraught with huge economic losses. The latter, in turn, are fraught with political consequences>, he stressed.
According to the analyst, in order to avoid all these negative processes and threats, political programs were developed two years ago to separate business from politics. However, the political leadership did not pay due attention to these programs. In this light, Saroyan noted with regret that there is a huge political deficit in Armenia. According to him, the current developments are a vivid manifestation of this idea.
Earlier, the NSS reported that more than $ 60 million was not paid to the state budget as a result of the illegal activities of Tsarukyan's companies in the gambling business. After that, the special services informed the society about two more criminal cases. The first is connected with the distribution of bribes during the 2017 election campaign, the second with the appropriation of land in the village of Arinj.