Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 24.03.22:

  • For three days now, the citizens of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] have been deprived of natural gas supply; this happened as a result of the interference of Azerbaijan.

On March 7, the natural gas pipeline was blown up in an area under Azerbaijani control. Azerbaijan did not allow under various pretexts the gas pipeline to be repaired, and in the end, it repaired it.

However, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan noted that “a valve was installed on the gas pipeline, and on March 18—11 days later after restoring the gas supply to Artsakh for 4 days—on March 21, Azerbaijan simply closed the pipeline valve without explosions, thus proving that it was the one behind the March 7 explosion.”

Both natural gas outages occurred in exceptional cold winter weather conditions. And in these conditions, Artsakh was deliberately deprived of the natural gas supplies that are vital for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools, and hospitals.

“This is enough to realize that as a result of Azerbaijan's actions, Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe,” the PM added.

Artsakh Security Council secretary has already been authorized to work with Russia peacekeepers and negotiate with Azerbaijan over the gas restoring issue.

The international community, including the EU and Freedom House, has also condemned the situation created.

During the government’s meeting, the PM also said that the situation in the world and in the region is tense, thus the PM believes that the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon as possible.

Pashinyan said they have proposed a ‘mirror’ withdrawal of troops from the border—considering the de jure approved boundary of Armenia and Azerbaijan of the Soviet times as the ‘compass’ for withdrawal.

The PM, however, stressed that in addition to the full withdrawal, Armenia has also made proposals for the local withdrawal of troops, and is waiting for Azerbaijan's response here as well.

Speaking about a 5-point proposal of Baku for normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the PM said that Armenia had already appealed to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and asked to assist in the organization of peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The PM also noted that there is nothing unacceptable in the proposals conveyed by Azerbaijan on March 10, except that these proposals don’t address all the issues on the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda.

Earlier on Wednesday, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan also noted that there is nothing unacceptable for Armenia in the proposals voiced by Azerbaijan.

The FM once again said that Armenia and Turkey should establish diplomatic relations and open borders.

According to the minister, the decision to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum turned out to be correct.

However, the FM noted that there are no specific agreements yet.

"But the parties confirmed that they continue the process without any preconditions," the FM said.

  • The Artsakh Information Center reports a violation of the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces.

According to the situation as of Thursday noon, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the line of contact in the direction of the village of Parukh, Askeran region.

Parukh village head Vardan Mikayelyan told NEWS.am that the Azerbaijanis entered the village from different directions without firing. There were no Armenian servicemen in the village.

Representatives of the Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in Artsakh are trying through talks to stop the further advance of the enemy and return it to its original positions.

Women and children of the Hramort community of the Askeran region have been evacuated at the moment.

The population is urged to remain calm, the situation is currently stable in all other sections of the contact line.

  • Exports from Armenia to Russia decreased by almost 30 percent in March.

The minister of economy, Vahan Kerobyan,, however, noted there is growth in the other sectors, and the overall situation with exports is also positive—as this growth was 27-28 percent in February.

"We are working with exporters so that they quickly renew contracts in the conditions of new prices," the minister said.

He assured that exports from Armenia to Russia will increase sharply if there will be a lack of goods in the Russian market.

  • The situation on the Russian-Georgian border checkpoint Lars is currently unstable.

The checkpoint has been closed for up to 30 days.

Since the beginning of March, the Lars checkpoint is regularly closed for all types of cars due to weather conditions

Some Armenian drivers have also been stuck there for a while.

It is snowing in Lars at the moment, after which the road can be opened for cars in the evening, first for cars, then for trucks.

The customs attaché attached to the Armenian Embassy in Russia Aram Tananyan told NEWS.am.

According to him, yesterday, after the opening of the road, about 200 trucks and about 300 cars were able to move from Russia.

"At the moment, there are more than 3,500 trucks on the accumulated road: the traffic jam reaches a length of 120 km," said Tananyan.

According to Tananyan, the snow removal works are carried out by the Georgian side.

  • Reports over the recent week floated that the United States informally raised with Turkey the possibility of transferring the S-400s to Ukraine as it tries to fend off the Russian special operation that began on Feb. 24.

However, Turkey has rejected the idea of sending its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ukraine to help it fight the invading Russian forces.

“Though quite unrealistic today, this idea presents an opportunity to discuss the problems Turkey has experienced lately with the West,” Communications Director Fahrettin Altun told the Wall Street Journal.

The top official stressed informal proposals would not repair relations, urging the West and the U.S. to deliver F-35 fighter jets and Patriot batteries to Ankara “without preconditions.”

Meanwhile, the UK plans to transfer 6,000 additional units of weapons to Ukraine, including anti-tank missiles, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

In addition to arms supplies, London intends to allocate 25 million pounds sterling (about 33 million dollars) to pay the salaries of the Ukrainian military

  • NATO fears that China may support Russia in the conflict with Ukraine, Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that alliance members will discuss Beijing's role in the Ukraine war in Brussels.

"China has provided Russia with political support, including by spreading blatant lies and misinformation," Stoltenberg said ahead of an urgent NATO summit on Thursday.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in turn, noted that Washington is concerned that China could help Russia "backfill" and access these products by violating trade restrictions.

NATO is expected to commit to “major increases” in troop numbers along its eastern flank, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg telling CNBC ahead of the summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made “a big mistake.”

  • Russia continues to be hit with an array of sanctions that effectively cut off Moscow’s major financial institutions from Western markets.

The country’s large banks are deeply integrated into the global financial system and it is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, meaning sanctions against Russia could disrupt economies around the world.

However, Russian president Vladimur Putin has decided to respond to the West’s unprecedented sanctions leveled on Moscow in response to the attack on Ukraine.

Now Russia will force Europe to start paying for gas supplies in rubles, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday in TV remarks.

“I have decided to implement a set of measures to transfer payments for our gas supplies to unfriendly countries into Russian rubles,” Putin said, ordering the changes to be implemented within a week.

Meanwhile, Russia deems all countries that have hit it with sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine as “unfriendly.”

Europe imports around 40% of its natural gas from Russia, with contracts typically priced in euros. Russia’s gas exports to “unfriendly” countries came in at around $50 billion in 2021, according to an estimate by Loko Invest.