Paper: Armenia Refuses to Sell its Gas Pipe to Russia

Armenian officials have denied that they agreed to sell 45% of their shares of the Iran-Armenian gas pipeline to Russia in exchange for cheap gas, the Russian daily Kommersant reported on January 25.

Russia increased the gas price for Armenia – from USD 54 to USD 110 starting from 2006. According to Kommersant, Moscow has set an ultimatum to Armenia: either Armenia will give Gazprom shares in the Iran-Armenia gas pipelineas or gas prices for the country will increase to USD 110.

?This proposal was, and remains, unacceptable for us,? the newspaper quoted an un-named Armenian official as saying.

According to the paper, if Gazprom takes over these pipes Russia will be able to control the flow of Iranian gas to Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine in the future.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)