Sargsyan’s candidate is Sargsyan
The closer the elections get, the tenser the situation for Armenia's ruling elite, according to our sources. Once again, the apple of discord is the prime minister's office.
It is obvious that the struggle is not to fix the devastating state of the economy, but to take advantage of the last opportunity to gain resources and additional levers before the elections.
The contenders for this office are NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan and chief of staff of Serzh Sargsyan's apparatus, Karen Karapetyan.
How realistic is the replacement of the prime minister today? According to the president's insiders, Serzh Sargsyan has no intention to dismiss current Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. On the contrary, the list of the Republican Party of Armenia is formed after consultation with the prime minister and Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law, Mikayel Minasyan.
Insiders that are well aware of what's going on say that at the moment, Serzh Sargsyan wouldn't prefer any other prime minister other than Tigran Sargsyan since the latter conforms and fulfills any assignment and secondly, the prime minister doesn't exercise powers that are reserved for him by the RA Constitution.
What opportunities does NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan have for becoming the new prime minister?
Even though he is quite wealthy and has a large circle, he is also viewed as part of Robert Kocharyan's team and has family relations with Gagik Tsarukyan.
Serzh Sargsyan won't allow the strengthening of Robert Kocharyan's positions before the elections and the handing of powers to his teammate. However, Hovik Abrahamyan isn't losing hope and continues to fund certain papers aimed at discrediting the prime minister.
As far as Karen Karapetyan is concerned, even the Republicans don't consider him a team member and don't view him as a Republican with an ideology. Besides that, his brother, Samvel Karapetyan is not doing too well in Russia, and his advancement is Karapetyan's only moving force.
According to our source, Serzh Sargsyan's team includes heads of the police as well. Despite rumors that Chief of Police Alik Sargsyan and Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan are from Kocharyan's administration, according to the president's insider, they are entirely backed by Serzh Sargsyan.
As far as sacrificing the office of prime minister to the opposition is concerned, our source ruled that out and noted that the oppositional prime minister will fully take advantage of the powers given to the prime minister through constitutional reforms.
In that case, Serzh Sargsyan will completely lose power, and that is simply illogical in the case of an autocratic government before the elections.
As a matter of fact, there is a real danger of loss of autocracy in the case of the other two "pro-government" candidates, meaning that there is simply no better prime minister for Serzh Sargsyan than Tigran Sargsyan.
