“There is nothing concrete at the moment,” Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The Russian Railways (RZhD) monopoly controls the network in accordance with a 30-year management contract signed in 2008. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on February 13 that it should be run by another, non-Russian company because its current status discourages Turkey and Azerbaijan from using a much larger section of Armenian territory for transit purposes in the near future. He suggested that another Turkic country, Kazakhstan, could be interested in taking over it.
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed Pashinian’s statement as “bizarre” and “not acceptable.” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk similarly said that there are “no objective reasons” for RZhD to sell its management rights to another foreign operator. He brushed aside Pashinian’s declared rationale for such a deal, arguing that Turkey is already building a railway that will run from the eastern Turkish city of Kars to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave bypassing Armenia.
In an interview with the official TASS news agency published on April 2, Overchuk also threatened far-reaching retaliatory measures against Yerevan’s efforts to push RZhD and other major Russian companies out of Armenia. The interview followed Pashinian’s tense talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin held in Moscow. Putin implied that Armenia would pay a heavy economic price for its government’s continued drift to the European Union.
Pashinian said afterwards that he discussed the railway issue with Putin “in detail.” He did not report any agreements reached by them. He also said he is “not planning” to unilaterally scrap the management contract with RZhD.
“We need to find solutions,” Grigorian said in his regard. He would not be drawn on Yerevan’s next steps.
“You know, it's a pretty complicated issue,” said the vice-premier. “It's not possible to say now that this is the solution we can come up with. It wouldn't be serious.”