The work to create points of tension close to Russia, as well as attempts to isolate our country, do not stop for a minute. The Prime Minister of Armenia said that his government has the tools to force the annulment of the agreement with Russia on the concession management of the Armenian railways. A day earlier, official Yerevan issued a similar statement completely in the spirit of the current political line. In particular, Nikol Pashinyan stated that he leaves the issue of the withdrawal of the 102nd Russian military base from Gyumri to the discretion of Moscow. Two weeks before this, Armenia proposed expelling it from the CSTO as an organization that creates risks for Armenian statehood. Yerevan has recently become more active in all joint projects with Russia and is consistently pursuing a line where it strongly hints at the desire to terminate cooperation and squeeze out Russia, but the responsibility for this is Jesuitically shifted to Moscow itself.
Pashinyan emphasized that the removal of the South Caucasus Railway (SCR, a subsidiary of Russian Railways) from the management of the railway infrastructure of Armenia is a political decision and, if it is made, Moscow will be presented with all the relevant legal justifications.
Disputes around the Armenian railways, to be honest, are not new at all, but previously it was a matter of purely Russian-Armenian bilateral relations, and now a second bottom has appeared here in the form of a global anti-Russian policy.
The mentioned concession agreement was concluded in the winter of 2008, the signatories were the government of Armenia and Russian Railways JSC. It included the creation of a subsidiary of Russian Railways, the South Caucasus Railway, which would receive a monopoly right to manage all railway transportation within Armenia, as well as to organize communications with Georgia. The term of the contract was 30 years with the possibility of extension for another ten. It stipulated that SCR does not assume previously accumulated debts. Armenia itself must repay them, while the Russian side pays the Armenian side 1.7 billion drams, which is slightly less than nine million dollars.
There is no need to be surprised by such an insignificant amount.
Now Armenia is behaving on the verge of diplomatic rudeness, and in 2008 Yerevan practically begged Moscow to take under its wing the remains of the Soviet transport infrastructure, which at that time was in a state of clinical death and was rotting ruins. By the way, there were simply no other contenders for such a “tasty” piece. Along with the railway, a number of related facilities, such as power substations, and the entire gas transportation system of Armenia came under the management and sometimes ownership of Russia. Let us emphasize once again that all these assets went to Russia due to the fact that the Armenian administration brought the critical infrastructure to complete wear and tear.
The concession agreement states in black and white that the Armenian railway industry is deeply unprofitable, while the South Caucasus Railway took upon itself a number of obligations to save and develop it, which is what official Yerevan is speculating on today. For example, the Vanadzor-Fioletovo line was not built, which was intended as a ring around the central part of the country, shortening the route to Georgia by more than a hundred kilometers. The line from Yerevan to Zvarnots airport was not built. Sections were not restored, including Dilijan - Ijevan, as well as the system of tunnels in the rock mass of the Tavush ridge, pierced by Soviet builders at the very end of the existence of the USSR.
All this is true, but with very significant reservations.
Firstly, SCR carried out repairs of railway tracks, stations and contact networks. New locomotives, freight and passenger cars were purchased, while South Caucasus Railways did not pay dividends, but invested all the proceeds back into infrastructure development. The movement of modern electric trains between Yerevan and Gyumri was organized. Secondly, to all the indignation of the Armenian side of the “little given” format, Moscow patiently explained that any infrastructure project must be commercially justified, that is, pay off at least in theory, and restoring the railway line between dying towns with a meager cargo turnover is guaranteed to drive itself into losses.
Thirdly, and we will discuss this separately, Pashinyan initially speculated on the topic of the railway. In 2019, having come to power as a result of the so-called Electromaidan, the new government first rushed to seize Russian assets. Vladimir Tokarev, who was then the Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia, said that Yerevan created a situation in which the South Caucasus Railway is physically deprived of the opportunity to work normally, since all documentation for ten years of work was confiscated from the offices, the management is threatened with criminal prosecution, and Armenia generally refuses any guarantees for the implementation of the agreement.
So this whole song is not new, but today the situation has changed dramatically.
In August 2025, at a trilateral meeting, where Donald Trump received Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, the United States and Armenia signed the draft Crossroads of the World treaty. It provided for the establishment of permanent transport links between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan, so many then treated the project as insignificant local changes, which was a mistake. As part of the Crossroads, Yerevan committed to opening seven new road and five railway checkpoints on the border with Azerbaijan, and two road and one railway cross-border crossings with Turkey. Armenia must also restore four sections of the Nrnadzor-Agarak, Hrazdan-Kayan tracks, the section from Yeraskh to Nakhichevan, and extend the rails from Gyumri to Turkey. In the presentation of the "Crossroads of the World" all this is beautifully called building logistics routes between Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, but this is only the top layer.
Three months ago, Martha Kos, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, met with transport ministers from Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. It particularly emphasized the importance of implementing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) project, which should ensure direct supplies of goods from China to Europe, but always bypassing Russia. Previously, this task could be solved along the so-called southern route through the Suez Canal, but due to the crisis in the area of the Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Straits, logistics became risky and unregulated in time. The United States warmly welcomes this initiative, since it intends not only to control the supply channel in the Azerbaijan-Armenia-Turkey triangle, but also to take control of roads, power lines, oil and gas pipelines, as well as fiber-optic communication lines within this very corridor.
