Hrant Bagratyan: Yerevan Mayor is front-runner for post of Prime Minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Prime Minister of Armenia Hrant Bagratyan said that Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan is the front-runner for the post of the Prime Minister to replace Tigran Sargsyan.

According to him, incumbent Minister of Finance Vache Gabrielyan is another possible candidate.

“Everyone wants Tigran Sargsyan to be dismissed, as the country’s authorities are already bored with his ideas and speeches,” Bagratyan said.

Referring to Karapetyan’s election to the post of Yerevan Mayor, Bagratyan said that there are not grounds for being admired with this activity in ArmRosgazprom. “A person, who is respected by the nation, should be the capital mayor,” he said.

“During his tenure, the internal economic price for gas grew from $8 to $190, while it is the cost of internal expenses, but not of the Russian gas. These costs make $20 and $49 in Ukraine and Russia respectively and these countries have huge territories,” said Bagratyan.

Besides, according to him, ArmRosgazprom has been justifying high tariffs for gas by implementation of an investment program on expansion of the gas storage, though gas consumption has reduced by 20% with respect to growth in prices for it.

“Who ever heard of gas storage expansion under conditions of decrease in gas consumption in the country? 81% of growth in tariffs for gas in spring 2010 was reasoned by internal factors of ArmRosgazprom and not by increase in prices for the Russian gas,” concluded Bagratyan.