Pashinyan Doubles Salaries of Special Forces Protecting Their Security, Says Grant Bagratyan

Pashinyan makes populist social promises almost daily. He talks about increasing the number of registered workers, then boasts about providing financial assistance to the relatives of soldiers killed in the war, and later discusses raising teachers' salaries, among other things. This was noted by former Prime Minister Grant Bagratyan on his Facebook page.

In particular, he stated: “In reality, he is dismantling everything, feeding people lies, distorting the truth. He is a complete failure in both foreign policy and issues related to war, as well as in resolving socio-economic problems. People are already feeling the bitter consequences of Nikol’s economic policies on their skin. A little more and we will see negative radical losses and turns in the economy akin to what we witnessed during the 2020 war, forcing the masses that brought Nikol to power to address his issues; the unity of Nikol and the masses will soon turn into a dual-pyramid of unsolvable contradictions.

In January-February 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, the economic decline was -6.7%. In 2020, compared to 2019, it was -7.8%. As always in the Nikol economic realm, mining has grown by 12%. This means that if the current government stops plundering the mines, the economic decline will be at least -10%. In 2021, out of 75 types of industrial products that were urgently registered, a decline was recorded in the physical volume of production for 42 of them.

In 2020, foreign direct investments amounted to $117 million, compared to $254 million in 2019. The number of employed people is decreasing; in 2020 we had 12.8 thousand fewer employed individuals than in 2019. In 2021, issues of employment and living standards have worsened. In the two months, food prices have risen by 7.2%, while salaries have increased by only 0.8%. Between 2018 and 2020, crimes, suicides, and child mortality have increased at unprecedented rates.

In just three years, the external debt to GDP ratio has risen from 56% to 68%. The first two months of 2021 marked a rare period where the number of deaths exceeded the number of births. Budgetary problems are deeper. The pace of decline in budget tax revenues in 2020-2021 is twice that of the economic decline.

When Pashinyan campaigns in the villages and makes promises to people, and when he makes payments (for example, paying 5 million drams to the relatives of the deceased), people must understand that, first, he is not using his own money, but rather budget funds, and secondly, the funds collected in a special foundation allow (it is mandatory) to pay at least 7 million drams.

He talks about raising teachers' salaries or pensions by 10%, but he raises the salaries of himself, Ararat Mirzoyan, ministers, parliament members, or the special forces protecting their security by 2 times (they call this a bonus). This is how the country is being degraded. Until when?