Alen Simonyan on Traveling Business Class to the U.S.

It is possible to travel by private jet, live in a van, or not go at all. This was stated by Alen Simonyan, the President of the National Assembly and acting President of Armenia, in an interview with parliamentmonitoring.am while commenting on his work trip to the U.S., where he traveled with a business class ticket costing 3 million 375 thousand drams, along with an additional half a million drams for accommodation, and approximately 250 thousand drams allocated for per diem.

In response to a question about whether more modest expenses could have been made, he stated, “I believe that this discussion is no longer appropriate because, upon arriving in the U.S., I had practical meetings during the first hours. I apologize, but I do not believe that the country's leadership should be in a 16-hour flight without sleep and then go to negotiate. I consider this to be correct, and I want to emphasize that all work-related or official trips where the flight will be long should have conditions that allow for work. For example, when flying to Moscow, there is no need for that because the flight is short. Our trip to the U.S. took 24 hours, meaning we were traveling for 24 hours. We went to another country from here, waited there, and then continued on. But I had to have meetings in the U.S., and I could not sleep during the meetings.

As for accommodation, it does not differ in any way from an average middle-class lodging. A mid-range hotel was chosen; I see nothing extraordinary in that. I believe that better conditions should be created so that those who go to work also have the opportunity to rest.”