ARMENIA IN "WAITING MODE"

In the second half of October, the world learnt about a major scam involving an Armenian criminal group in the United States. As a result of the scam, US taxpayers suffered substantial damage. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has already arrested 70 members of this criminal syndicate comprised mainly of Armenian immigrants and citizens led by a criminal boss named Armen Kazaryan, alias Pzo. According to the information available, this organized criminal group also dealt illegally in weapons, precious stones and rare-earth metals, smuggled drugs and was involved in kidnappings and extortion. A court in Los Angeles has already refused to bail three members of the Armenian criminal group - Armen Kazaryan (Pzo), Vardan Boyajian and Grayr Bagumyan, explaining that they pose a danger to society. The charges also say that the criminals misled the US immigration authorities and "used representatives of a foreign government to ensure that that government refuses to accept people deported from the United States, thus depriving the US authorities of the possibility of deporting them home". There appears to be a clear link between this group and the former Armenian consul in Los Angeles, Norayr Galumyan, who was arrested in the USA some time ago. Together with four of his accomplices, Galumyan, on behalf of the Armenian government, sold counterfeit letters to interested persons, saying that Armenia could not provide immigrants with travel documents and thus preventing their deportation home. Most of those who bought the forged documents have been charged with murder, assault and other crimes.

Even a cursory analysis shows that there is a well-established structure linking closely the Armenian criminals, terrorism and the Armenian state. It is no coincidence that Pzo was present as an honorary guest at the wedding of the son of Armenia's former president, Robert Kocharyan; bringing very expensive gifts. Kazaryan is also reported to be linked to the country's current leadership and its circle, specifically Aleksandr Sargsyan, brother of the Armenian president. It is otherwise impossible to explain Pzo's strange release from custody in Yerevan.

According to several Armenian and Russian news agencies, the clan of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has developed a unique scheme for creating criminal syndicates in the USA and Russia. It became known that 32 representatives of the Armenian political and business elite had been involved in criminal cases launched by the Russian law-enforcement agencies. We are talking about criminal cases related mostly to human trafficking, drug trafficking and money-laundering. Russia raised the issue of bringing these people to criminal accountability, and among them are the Armenian president's brother Aleksandr Sargsyan, Armenian Speaker Hovik Abramyan, the head of the state revenue committee, Gagik Khachatryan, and members of parliament Ruben Ayrapetyan, Samvel Aleksanyan, Levon Sarkisyan and Gagik Tsarukyan. Despite undeniable evidence and the Russian demands, the Armenian Prosecutor-General's Office and National Security Service (NSS) do not dare or, to be more precise, do not want to open criminal cases against them, for fear of not just tarnishing the reputation of the country's authorities, but also revealing Armenians and the Armenian state in their true colours.

Meanwhile, the Armenian president's brother runs away from especially hair-splitting journalists, hiding in the toilet. Recently, when a correspondent from the Aykakan Zhamanak newspaper tried to ask him about possible links with Pzo, Aleksandr Sargsyan said that he had to go to the toilet urgently. Then, raining curses on the journalists, he left the parliament building. To all appearances, the Armenian authorities and their close circle have taken on board this Armenian "know how" in the field of international relations which was first used by the country's former president, Robert Kocharyan. During his negotiations with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Rambouillet in February 2006, Kocharyan suddenly walked out of the meeting, saying later that he left because he had to go to the toilet.

But it seems the tactic of pleading a call of nature is not going to work. The US law-enforcement agencies have got down to business in earnest, realizing at last who hides behind the mask of the world's "poorest" and "longest-suffering" people which has turned Washington into a milch cow. The US authorities demanded that their representatives be allowed to inspect banks in Armenia. According to the US intelligence service, some of the stolen money had gone there via banks. The FBI suspects that money was laundered in Armenia through real estate deals and, as the FBI does not trust information from the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), it decided to check every bank itself.

There is no doubt that the investigation will expose many of the criminal secrets of the Armenians and the Armenian authorities. If you remember, in February this year Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan refused to visit Israel, pleading a sudden fever. In fact, he was scared that he might be arrested by the Israel law-enforcement agencies. There was reason for this because when he was chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia he was engaged in money-laundering and helped to transfer illegal money to some Arab countries. The Israeli intelligence service found out that some of this money was used to support terrorist organizations. Several high-ranking Armenian officials learnt that Israel was aware of Sarkisyan's machinations, and they advised him to forego his trip to Israel.

Along with inspections of all Armenian banks, the FBI also intends to delve into documents at notaries' offices to ascertain whether the purchases of numerous expensive flats, offices and mansions by representatives of the criminal group were legal. Such a scale of investigation greatly worried Robert Kocharyan and the current Armenian authorities, who urgently started to dissociate themselves from their partners in crime and even found scapegoats. For the time being, the scapegoat is the head of the Armenian state revenue committee, Khachatryan, whom they are going to blame for the fact that Armenia has become a conduit for drugs and weapons, especially as there is undeniable evidence of his close links with Pzo. But Khachatryan was probably just a reliable link between the criminal boss and the Armenian authorities. We see that the Armenians and Armenia are clearly trying to save face and, most importantly, to prevent the cessation of the influx of huge financial resources from the West, including the USA, which are then used to militarize Armenia and the separatist regime in Nagornyy Karabakh and spent on the needs of Armenian terrorist organizations.

In June last year, the US Millennium Challenge Corporation decided to stop financing a road construction programme. The reason was that steps taken by the Armenian government did not correspond to one of the corporation's three criteria - fair management. Since then, Yerevan has had "operational hold" status (i.e. it has been in waiting mode). Over the past year, the corporation was supposed to study whether Armenia satisfied the necessary requirements. If the conclusion was positive, Armenia would be given 68 million dollars to finance a road construction sub-programme by the official end of the programme in September 2011. Now a source at the Millennium Challenge Corporation says that no funding will be allocated. The activity of the Armenian criminal group arrested in the USA, particularly the fact that some of the stolen money was invested in real estate and business in Armenia, was a significant factor in the Washington administration's decision, and the board of the corporation will soon hold a meeting at which this decision will be officially endorsed.

Another Armenian criminal scandal shook Russia recently. In late October, Armenia finally extradited Telman Mkhitaryan, one of the leaders of the Novgorod criminal community, to the Russian Federation. He had been hiding in Armenia for a long time. This criminal boss, who heads several joint-stock companies, such as the Novgorod Glass Fibre Factory, Proyektstroy and a number of other enterprises and organizations, controlled a considerable section of the region's economy. Under the region's former governor, Mikhail Prusak, he served as the governor's adviser for political affairs and, according to the Russian law-enforcement agencies, he was the region's godfather or, to be more precise, its true master for 11 years. After the Russian law-enforcement agencies charged him with illegal entrepreneurship in 2007, Mkhitaryan managed to flee to Armenia. A peculiar aspect of the story is that in 2000 an essay was published about him in the collection "The 100 Leaders of Novgorod Land". He received honours "for many years of hard work, for strengthening friendship and cooperation between peoples, developing the urban economy and high achievements in public activities". In 2001, the leadership of the Velikiy Novgorod city administration, represented by Mayor Aleksandr Korsunov, gave Mkhitaryan the title of honorary citizen of Velikiy Novgorod. In the summer of 2002, he was given the Order of Friendship (by Decree 426 of the Russian president on 27 April 2002). The order was timed to coincide with Telman Akopovich's 55th birthday. One of the regional newspapers wrote at the time: "What else can you give someone who has everything?" He is also an active member of the UN's International Information Academy with General Consultant status and the World e-Parliament. What regalia?! Perhaps he came to believe in his own omnipotence and once, in the heat of the moment, he called Governor Prusak a tramp, saying that he was registered in a village. In one of his interviews, he promised to "give" the city of Velikiy Novgorod to his grandchildren.

It is also worth noting the actions of Ashot Yegiazaryan, a member of the Russian State Duma from the LDPR faction. This is the same Yegiazaryan who once played a role in the sacking of Russian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Skuratov. Recently, at the request of the investigation committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office, the Russian State Duma stripped Yegiazaryan of his immunity as a deputy and decided to open a criminal case against him. He is being charged with the theft of almost two billion roubles from two businessmen. Yegiazaryan himself, outraged by this action, left Russia. It is interesting that the deputy speaker of the State Duma, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, vehemently defended his MP and tried to protect him from fair punishment. But he forgot to mention how much money (according to some reports, at least 20 million US dollars) Yegiazaryan had donated to LDPR funds during two Russian parliamentary election campaigns. Incidentally, this is the second time that an ethnic Armenian member of the Russian Federal Assembly, has been brought to criminal accountability. Several years ago, a senator from Kalmykia, Levon Chakhmakhchyan, was sentenced to 9.5 years' imprisonment for major fraud.

According to Smbat Karakhanyan, chairman of the Miabanutyun Armenian National Club, Armenia does not have a true state system, while the government was knocked together from representatives of the oligarchy, criminals and foreign proteges via falsifications and pressure.

Not only the Armenian authorities, but also some foreign countries, are touchingly concerned about the fate of former and current Armenian officials involved in criminal dealings. The secretary of the Armenian Security Council, Artur Bagdasaryan, who is a personal prot?g? of Serzh Sargsyan, was declared a traitor by the then president Kocharyan, after a scandal involving representatives of the British embassy (according to some reports, representatives of the British intelligence service) and was publicly accused of espionage against Armenia. But he was suddenly appointed secretary of the Armenian Security Council several months later. According to Armenian sources, Bagdasaryan is the country's first politician to burst into the government elite not just with support from officials and business circles, but also from foreign forces (France). He has been awarded French, Austrian and Kazakh medals, and a medal "For Service to the Kaliningrad Region" (?!) by the governor of the Kaliningrad Region on 3 November 2009.

In this context, the personality of A. Arutyunyan, chairman of the board of Armenian Public TV (H1 TV channel) and former secretary of the National Security Council (1998-2002), is also of interest. After the terrorist attack on the country's parliament in 1999, he was arrested on charges of organizing it. Prior to that, he had maintained close links with the terrorists' ringleader, Nairi Unanyan. After several months in prison, Arutyunyan was released in April 2000. President Kocharyan played a major role in this, while the French embassy was also active in this matter.

According to the Russian law-enforcement agencies, the "godfathers" of the Armenian mafia have been using their connections in the Russian government since the 1990s to participate in the distribution of quotas, licences and loans and in the conversion of currency. Some of the money earned through crime is spent on bribing politicians and to support "their own people" against the courts, prosecutor's office and police. The group specializes in the economic sphere and establishes illegal ways of importing precious metals and stones into Armenia from Russia in order to process them and sell them abroad. They also engage in highway robbery, drug trafficking and ordinary muggings. An analytical note concerning the crime situation in the Sverdlovsk Region in the context of ethnic crime, prepared by experts of the region's Department of Internal Affairs and Department of the Federal Security Service, contains an interesting point: "Caucasian criminal groups are continuing their expansion in the Urals. Representatives of the Armenian diaspora have gone further than others in this field. After the forestry business in which some representatives of the Armenian diaspora have been doing well, they started buying up land plots that can be used for construction or sale. The Armenians also suppress other ethnic groups. One of the most graphic examples is the seizure of land in Atiga (Nizhneserginskiy District of Sverdlovsk Region). Chinese businessmen, who planned to open two factories in and around Atiga, failed to set up their business independently. Representatives of the Armenian diaspora placed the Chinese under their control and are now looking after them, reaping good dividends from this business. At the same time, influential Armenians cite their good connections in the law-enforcement agencies. The Armenian diaspora is also taking control of businesses in the Taganskiy Ryad market. The Chinese no longer have a monopoly on trade in consumer goods at Taganskiy Ryad, which was once the richest and most profitable market in Yekaterinburg.

Armenians now have a share in footwear sales. The next target is the housing market. Representatives of the Armenian diaspora easily worm their way into people's confidence and occupy top positions in commercial organizations. Then they take over company property using false documents, corrupt officials and fellow Armenians. They use blackmail and threats, criminal cases and rough physical violence. Buildings and flats are held and used illegally, while the legal owners are not allowed in. The seized buildings are used to arrange criminal gatherings, open brothels, use drugs and openly demonstrate weapons. At the same time, there is almost no hope for an impartial investigation into complaints filed by Ural entrepreneurs, because the diaspora covers everything up. Rare witnesses of these atrocities are hunted and intimidated, and the raiders from the Caucasus get away with everything."

As we can see from the note, the main coordinators of these criminal actions are in fact the leaders of the Armenian diaspora in Russia. This is also proved by numerous other criminal charges brought against the leaders of Russian Armenians.

Armenians who have made their way into Russian academic circles are also engaged in criminal activities, like their compatriots. For example, several years ago, a major scandal broke out involving one of the "fathers of market reform in Russia", Academician Abel Aganbekyan. He was charged under Articles 285 and 289 of the Russian Criminal Code (abuse of office and illegal entrepreneurship). The academician was charged with misappropriating 4.8 million roubles in real estate operations at his Agriculture Academy.

The latest events prove that serious tests await the Armenian lobby. The Armenian diaspora, the criminal world and the authorities are under great pressure from the US and Russian law-enforcement agencies. Incidentally, it is possible that their position on this issue is becoming tougher due to one more issue. Moscow suspects that the Armenian special services, closely linked to the criminal world, are supplying information not only to bandits, but to foreign intelligence services. Because of this, there was a serious scandal when, several months ago, a number of Armenian agents were exposed and arrested in the USA thanks to a tip-off from the former head of the human resources department of the Armenian NSS, Vardan Yegiazaryan, who was mentioned in the case of the arrest of Russian agents in the USA. Some Russian and Armenian media claim that Yegiazaryan, who knew about the Russian agents in the USA, simply "surrendered" their names to the US intelligence service in exchange for the right to move to the United States. We may suppose that being caught in the crossfire between the US and Russian intelligence services, the Armenians and the Armenian authorities are trying their best to minimize the negative consequences to themselves. Otherwise, they might lose huge financial handouts from abroad.