The investment banker Ruben Vardanian, one of the most reputable personalities of the Russian financial sector, was appointed, Friday, November 4, to the post of head of the government of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of the Caucasus populated by Armenians who s declared itself independent in the 1990s and remains militarily disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
What could have prompted the prominent 54-year-old Russian-Armenian oligarch, born in Yerevan, Armenia, to leave his comfortable life in Moscow for Stepanakert, the austere capital of Nagorno-Karabakh? 1er September already, he had announced on social networks his installation in the region at the cost of a radical initiative. “I made the decision, realizing the risks I was taking, to renounce Russian citizenship and move to Nagorno-Karabakh as an Armenian citizen. »
According to him, since the military defeat suffered by Armenia in the fall of 2020, the population of the enclave “feels abandoned”. His goal is to support her. “Armenians around the world must stand with the people of Artsakh [Haut-Karabakh, en arménien] »said the entrepreneur, who has been carrying out social and cultural sponsorship actions there for years.
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Shortly after his installation, the self-proclaimed president of the region, Arayik Haroutiounian, asked him to conduct day-to-day business. It is now up to Ruben Vardanian to manage the loss of resources due to the war, the devastated infrastructures, the absence of heating and electricity, the displaced persons, the threat of new clashes.
Legendary interpersonal skills
The task promises to be thankless, even dangerous, in a context of never-ending war, even if he puts all his fortune, estimated by Forbes at 1 billion dollars in 2021 (same amount in euros), at the service of the cause. Landlocked, poor, exhausted by the war, the region, a confetti populated by Armenians very attached to their ancestral lands, is falling apart.
The 2020 clashes, which left more than 6,500 dead on both sides, ended in an Armenian military rout, the loss of territory to Azerbaijan, whose population had been driven out between 1992 and 1994, and a fragile peace agreement sponsored by Moscow. Regularly, skirmishes break out, either in Nagorno-Karabakh, or on the recognized border between the two countries, as was the case in September (286 dead).
Ruben Vardanian says he is ready to take up the challenge. “An investment banker is fundamentally a negotiator. My experience in business shows that I can negotiate with very different people. (…) I want to be efficient”he confided in an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant in its November 3 edition. “Am I ready to take responsibility for what is happening in the Armenian world? I’ve been doing this for twenty years. Am I willing to do things that make me feel uncomfortable? Yes “, he added.
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