The list is ready; the ranks of big sharks are thinning
18:41, April 2, 2018 | News, Other news
The recent arrests of current and former leaders of communities on charges of misappropriation and abuse of power are the consequence of the state not having enough resources to satisfy the appetite of the entire corrupt system already developed. Such an observation was made by human rights defender Artur Sakunts in an interview with Lragir.am.
“We see a range of prosecutions against certain officials of the middle and inner circles on charges of corruption, misappropriation and other corruption crimes. I hold that this is caused by the lack of financial resources. That is to say, in the conditions of the lack of financial resources, not being able to manage the corruption schemes developed in the conditions of greater financial resources, they try to restrain the appetite of the corrupt system through targeted sacrifices as they can no longer satisfy it,” the human rights defender said. And at this stage, according to him, the current and former leaders of communities have been targeted.
Artur Sakunts recalls that Serzh Sargsyan warned about this operation against community leaders yet last year, during the widely known meeting.
“And he warned the innermost circle about this, but, in actuality, it was also directed towards the middle and high circles. But I do not think that he will get to the high circle, I mean the ministers, governors of provinces and so forth. They will not be brought to criminal liability. That is to say, today’s management of corruption is aimed at adapting the corrupt mechanism to surviving in limited financial conditions. And it is not a fight against corruption. The borders of corruption are shrunk, and the number of people involved in corruption is diminished. And this situation was predictable,” he mentioned.
As stated by the human rights defender, in parallel, no consistency is shown in punishing major corruptors. The latter remain inviolable.
“Serzh Sargsyan is not going to touch the big sharks, which are the pillars of his authority. That is to say, he will bring criminal prosecution against the inner and middle circles, and the ranks of big sharks will be thinned not by applying legal methods against them, but [by resorting to] administrative methods. He’ll implement enlistment. We have already seen such cases, which happened to Hovik Abrahamyan, Gagik Khachatryan, Mher Sedrakyan and others. And those who are expropriated should be contented that they are not deprived of freedom. I repeat that the entire meaning of it is the following: to ensure the securing of the continuity or existence in the conditions of limited financial resources,” said Sakunts.
According to the human rights defender, one should not get encouraged and think as if this is a real step against corruption. There is no ground for it as, in that case, Serzh Sargsyan should, first of all, start from his close circle and himself.