After the recent session of the leaders of member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, there were views that Russia has rejected the proposal to lower the natural gas tariff for Armenia and Belarus. Yes, Armenia had proposed to set one price for transit and direct supply of natural gas for all five member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. This is what Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan said as he responded to deputies’ questions during a discussion on the 2019 State Budget performance report held as part of the joint session of parliamentary standing committees today, adding that even though Russia rejected the proposal, it didn’t reject the idea that the price has to be equal for all five member states.

“Russia said it is ready to lower the price for four countries, not five since there is a peculiarity in Russia, and the discussion concerning the issue of deeper integration raised by the President of Russia was linked to this proposal,” he said.

Grigoryan also informed that Armenia has already reached an agreement on one point, according to which Russia agrees that the price of transit and supply of natural gas, which actually makes up 80% of the cost of natural gas, will be a uniform price.