YEREVAN. – Moscow sees too much risk and danger in withdrawing support from the incumbent Armenian government and trying a riskier gamble of supporting any other alternative, Richard Giragosian, the founding director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), a Yerevan-based foreign policy think-tank, told Armenia News–NEWS.am.

“My concern over the demise, or weakening, of Prosperous Armenia, however, is that it falls within the trend of centralizing a one-party system in Armenia,” he said on the sidelines of the fourth ordinary session of Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan..

Prosperous Armenia party, led by an Armenian business tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, has long been claiming a solid partnership with United Russia, Russia’s ruling party.  On  March 5 Tsarukyan said he would quit his post as a chairman of Prosperous Armenia.

The future of Prosperous Armenia, after the retirement of Tsarukyan in early March, is extremely limited, and under threat, given the defection of many from the party, Giragosian said.

“The party will likely continue the same policies but with weaker personalities. This reflects the deeper disease of Armenian politics, where there’s a clash of personalities rather than a competition of policies,” he concluded.