Moscow reacts to gas overtures between Yerevan and Baku 

ArmInfo.Moscow reacts to gas overtures between Yerevan and Baku, says Doctor of Political Sciences  Vahe Davtyan. 

Last week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that after the  conclusion of a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan, Armenia can  purchase gas from the Azerbaijani side. This topic was picked up by  the ruling force of Armenia. Thus, the Speaker of the Armenian  Parliament Alen Simonyan, and then a number of deputies from the  ruling force supported this proposal from Azerbaijan.

Davtyan drew attention to the fact that on April 26, during a meeting  with the President of the Azerbaijani company SOCAR Rovshan Najaf,  Gazprom President Alexey Miller especially emphasized the consistency  and important role of Moscow in the supply of natural gas to Armenia.

"Of course, some formal reason was needed to include the Armenian  direction in the Russian-Azerbaijani gas negotiations. As such, the  Gazprom president used the event of March 2021, when 150 million  cubic meters of natural gas were supplied to Armenia through the  territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia conditions of repair work on the  North Caucasus-Transcaucasia gas pipeline. In fact, this is an event  that has long lost its relevance. Moreover, even 2 years ago it did  not contain any geopolitical component, being only a short- term  technical solution. Today, in the conditions of gas curtseys between  Yerevan and Baku, Miller reminds of this, showing that Baku can, at  best, act as a participant in the Russian-Armenian "energy dialogue"  to solve individual local technical problems, as happened in 2021,"  Davtyan noted.

He is convinced that it is important to understand that Miller's  statement concerned not so much gas and economic cooperation as  geopolitical guidelines.

Armenia currently buys Russian gas at one of the lowest prices in the  world - $165 per 1 thousand cubic meters. How much Azerbaijan will  sell its "blue" fuel for, if it comes to this, remains a mystery,  although the price will obviously be much higher. And a high price  means high electricity tariffs, transportation costs, etc. with all  the ensuing consequences.