Armenian president signs law enabling nationalisation of arrested oligarch's electricity firm

Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan has signed into law a bill enabling the nationalisation of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), a closed joint-stock company owned by Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who is currently under arrest in Yerevan.

The presidential decree was published on the president's official website, Caliber.Az reports.

According to the statement, “President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan has signed a package of laws amending the Law on the Public Services Regulatory Commission and introducing changes and additions to the Law on Energy.”

The nationalisation of ENA, Armenia’s sole electricity distributor serving approximately 1 million subscribers, follows a controversial sequence of events. The Armenian parliament passed the bill on July 3, with 65 votes in favour and 27 against, after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced plans to seize the company on June 18, shortly after Karapetyan’s arrest. Karapetyan, a billionaire and president of the Tashir Group, was detained on charges of publicly calling for the overthrow of the government, following his vocal support for the Armenian Apostolic Church amid its conflict with Pashinyan’s administration.

By Khagan Isayev