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Eurasia
July 6, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
project as designed, on time and on budget.
“Together with the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system, Shah Deniz 2 will deliver significant new energy supplies to Europe, further diversifying its sources of energy and providing new supplies of natural gas which will be essential in the energy transition.
Armenia’s new guard put Sargsyan-era officials under pressure
bne IntelliNews
Officials and businesspeople linked to Armenia’s Republican Party, which was ousted from power by a ‘people’s revolution’ in May, have been de- tained in a series of probes in recent weeks, while pressure is mounting on Yeveran mayor Taron Markarian to step down.
This follows the appointment of a new govern- ment led by former protest leader Nikol Pashin- ian, after former president Serzh Sargsyan was in late April forced from office shortly after taking on the prime minister post in a move intended to prolong his hold on power.
Government corruption and cronyism were main drivers behind Armenia’s massive street protests which produced what was referred to as a velvet revolution. Ahead of the parliament vote that es- tablished him as Sargsyan’s successor as prime minister, Pashinian, who had long campaigned against corruption in the small and impoverished South Caucasian country, insisted there would be “no oligarchs” in the new cabinet. He also
At plateau, Shah Deniz 2 is expected to produce 16bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year incre- mentally to current Shah Deniz production. To- gether with output from the first phase of devel- opment, total production from the Shah Deniz field will be up to 26 bcm of gas and up to 120,000 barrels of condensate a day. The Turkish market is to buy 6 bcm of the Shah Deniz gas per year.
Backers of protest-leader-turned-PM Nikol Pashinian hope he will live up to his anti-corruption billing.
pledged to tackle the monopolies that have long dominated Armenia’s economy.
Still, there were questions as to what extent Pashinian would be able to pursue an anti- corruption agenda once in power. “[T]he sheer complexity of the landscape means putting his anti-corruption, pro-democracy agenda upon inherently unforgiving terrain,” wrote Michael Cecire of New America in a comment for bne IntelliNews shortly after his appointment.
However, since the eviction of Sargsyan’s Re- publican Party, there are already signs that law enforcement agencies have been emboldened to take on officials close to the former regime.
They include MP and former army general Manvel Grigorian, whose home and summer house
were raided in mid-June, revealing not only huge stashes of illegal firearms and explosives but army supplies apparently intended for soldiers stationed in the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway