The groundwork is being laid for the transfer of Armenia’s railways to Western companies: Yevgeny Semibratov

Yevgeny Semibratov, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at RUDN University, commented to Alpha News on the situation surrounding the possible transfer of Armenia’s railways to Kazakhstan. According to the expert, the groundwork is being laid for the transfer of Armenia’s railways to Western companies.

“In this case, I believe that the groundwork is being laid to transfer Armenia’s railways to the management of Western European companies: French, British, perhaps others. Overall, at present, given that Armenia’s railways are under the control of Russian railways, and that any railway is strategic infrastructure, it is, naturally, impossible to speak of a military-political shift, so to speak, of Armenia toward the Euro-Atlantic sphere. This is because no strategically significant transportation is possible without railways, especially considering that Armenia is a country without access to the sea, and the railway itself has enormous, indeed colossal, importance. In this regard, also taking into account factors related to the forced normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan on Baku’s terms, which also opens a window of opportunity for the normalization of relations between Yerevan and Ankara, it is even possible that the potential beneficiary of control over Armenia’s railway system is Turkey or Azerbaijan, though more likely Turkey,” Semibratov said.

According to the expert, a narrative is being introduced into the information space suggesting that Russian Railways should be removed from Armenia and that this strategic asset should be transferred to third parties.

“The fact that Kazakhstan is now appearing in this story suggests that we are simply seeing an information warm-up, observing how people will react to it. Since Kazakhstan is an allied country of Russia, in this context there would seem to be no issue with the railway being managed not by Russians, but by Kazakhs. However, naturally, Kazakhstan is certainly not among the real contenders for managing Armenia’s railway system,” Semibratov concluded.