YEREVAN. – Armenian parliament in the second and final reading approved the package of ArmRusgazprom bills.

The draft bills were presented by Finance Minister Davit Sargsyan and were approved with 71 votes “for”, without votes“against” or abstentions. The deputies of non-coalition parliamentary factions left the hall before the vote.

Package of bills “On budget system”, “On Local Self-Government” and "On Local Self-Government in Yerevan” as well as “On the State Budget for 2013” provide that the proceeds from the sale of 20% shares of ArmRusgasprom to Russia’s Gazprom will be fully directed to the state budget, bypassing municipal budgets (under current law, they owed ​​30% from the sale of shares in state-owned enterprises). From the budget, the funds will be transferred to ArmRusgasprom as a compensation for the debt for Russian gas that had been supplied below market price since April 2011. ArmRusgazprom will use funds to modernize infrastructure under the contracts concluded before 31 January 2014.

Before putting the issues to the vote, speaker Hovik Abrahamyan said that the commission counting the votes received an application indicating a mistake during the morning vote: 77 votes ‘for’ instead of 72 were registered during the previous voting.  

A large number of activists have gathered across the entrance of the Armenian National Assembly building, since Monday morning. They are protesting against the natural gas agreements that were signed between the Armenian and the Russian governments on December 2. Pursuant to these agreements, the remaining 20 percent of the ArmRusGazprom Company shares, which the Government of Armenia owns, will be sold to the Russian energy giant Gazprom Company. As a result, Armenia is expected be deprived of the chance to import natural gas from other countries, or to change the terms for the import of gas, until the year 2043.