Karapetyan's Repeated 'Strong' Only Tied to Russia, Says Aram Sargsyan

“You shouldn’t anger Vladimir Putin... Samvel Karapetyan’s highly promoted speech was overly simplistic, and the performance was poor if not very poor,” wrote Aram Sargsyan, the president of the Republic party, on his Facebook page.

“The entire speech was a repetition of the word ‘strong’—strong economy, strong peace, strong army... According to Mr. Karapetyan or the speechwriter, the way to achieve strength is to improve relations with Moscow, Washington, London, Beijing... Why London and not Paris? Because Samvel Karapetyan is facing trial in France. France is an EU member, and Russia has issues with the EU, so you shouldn’t anger President Vladimir Putin; improving relations with the European Union is not necessary; the EAEU is the most suitable place, as claimed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Overchuk and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ms. Zakharova. It turns out that being ‘strong’ is about not angering Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The current relations of Armenia with Washington and London are good, and Mr. Karapetyan cannot improve them in his way—due to numerous objective and subjective reasons—better than the current authorities. Moreover, in the United States, Samvel Karapetyan is listed in the so-called ‘Kremlin Report’ related to Putin’s shadow money laundering.

Beijing decides whom to maintain better relations with, and the identity of the negotiator does not matter. For China, Azerbaijan is more preferable at this stage, as evidenced during the 44-day war when China vetoed a resolution to halt the war.

Therefore, the ‘strong’ repeated 14 times by Samvel Karapetyan is only and exclusively tied to Russia, where he is viewed not as a strong figure or a factor but as a tool, which Russians typically relinquish after use—as they did with the Artsakh political-military leadership, Bashar al-Assad, and others. There are many examples...” wrote Sargsyan.