The wartime situation in Georgia has shown just how heavily people in Armenia rely on goods imported from abroad for their vital day-to-day activities.

Initial anticipations and then real shortages in supplies of petrol started to affect Armenia’s market already on August 10, shortly after the outbreak of fighting in neighboring Georgia, and lasted for several weeks. Contrary to assurances given by government officials and petrol importers, petrol was a hard-to-find commodity throughout the republic in the last two weeks of August.