Karapetian was charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the Armenian government the day after strongly condemning Pashinian’s controversial efforts to depose Catholicos Garegin II and other senior clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Pashinian effectively admitted ordering the crackdown as he reacted furiously to the condemnation on Tuesday.
“I think the time has come to nationalize Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA),” Pashinian wrote on Facebook the following morning. “It will happen quickly.”
In another post, the premier accused ENA of having created a “near energy crisis” in Armenia with the possible aim of increasing public discontent with the government. He appeared to refer to brief power cuts periodically occurring in various parts of the country. The company insisted earlier that it is not responsible for most of those outages.
Karapetian’s Moscow-based Tashir Group acquired ENA from Russia’s RAO UES utility in 2015. It claims to have invested at least $680 million in Armenia’s aging power distribution network in the following decade. It says that it has also cut the network’s massive losses by more than half and saved some $30 million annually since 2016, allowing ENA to keep the electricity prices in the country unchanged.
Speaking to journalists later in the day, Pashinian said that a law on ENA’s nationalization has already been circulated in the Armenian parliament. But he did to elaborate on its details.
Opposition lawmakers warned, meanwhile, that such a seizure would be illegal and deal a serious blow to Armenia’s business reputation.
“It would have a pretty bad impact on our investment climate,” said Tigran Abrahamian, the parliamentary leader of the Pativ Unem bloc.
“We would have a significant deterioration of the business environment and an outflow of capital,” agreed Artur Khachatrian of the Hayastan alliance.
Although Pashinian claims to have eliminated “systemic” corruption and created a level playing field for all businesses, no large-scale Western or other foreign investment projects have been launched in Armenia during his seven-year rule.
In what looked like a related development, Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) said on Wednesday it has decided to fine ENA 10 million drams ($25,000) for “technical and commercial violations” detected by it in February. The head of the regulatory body, Mesrop Mesropian, denied any connection between the move and Pashinian’s crackdown on the ENA owner.
Mesropian was affiliated with Pashinian’s Civil Contract party when the Armenian parliament confirmed him as PSRC chairman last November.