Strange days indeed
Most peculiar. Mama.
                                John Lennon – Nobody Told Me

This is not going to be easy for President Serzh Sargysan. He procured a presidency by manipulating citizens and events, and assumes it now against justified kicking and screaming by even those who might agree with his intentions but didn’t count, themselves, on being gouged by the price with which the “Forward Armenia” highway is paved.

Two dramatic decisions in the first 10 days of office demonstrate the complexity of being Men in Charge of a republic in crisis.

As soon as the Second Sargsyan (Prime Minister Tigran) had accepted appointment to serve his countrymen, his first act as hatchet man was a cut in subsidies that, though not raising the price of natural gas, does raise consumer costs. The pinch will not be fully felt until the chill of next winter reminds of the chilling efficiency with which this new administration set out to assure – necessarily, all things considered – its warm relations with Russia, owners of the gas and owners of its outpost, Armenia.

The reasoning of the cut is sound; State resources for private expense are limited. But the timing of the cut was suspect, and sends a message that is more stumbling block than building block in creating public trust for this powerful but unproved and unpopular administration. Those of us without the privilege of inside information – and that’s just about the entire population except for the 131 who hold parliament seats – are liable to hear about the new burden to consumers and wonder why it was necessary now. More than ever before Armenia needs to be unified by common goodwill rather than further divided from leadership that lacks the authority of legitimacy and has a proven disregard for citizenry comfort.

Absent the trust that might be ours were law conducted more transparently here, we are liable to use our own equations for why things are:

Russia’s pre-election endorsement of Number One Sargsyan + Russia’s ownership of Armenia’s gas via megacorp Gasprom + news that outgoing president Robert Kocharyan may be taking a high-level post at Gasprom + speculation that the Second Sargsyan is a beard for the outgoing president = a cold winter for a lot of economically-strapped Armenians.

We are liable to be wrong.

But liability is the burden, first, of elected and appointed authorities and while these have done nothing wrong (and probably absolutely right), do they lack discernment by imposing more hardship on their people straight out of the gate? Or, worse, do they simply not care?

Tennis great Andre Agassi might not have served an ace when he got paid to say that “image is everything”, but here in the land that claims Agassi as a son, his old ad pitch for a camera might bring some focus to this new administration.

While perpetually-stubbled Second Sargsyan was shaving dollars off State gas obligations, Number One Sargsyan was creating explosions in the pipeline of illicit cash that has been flowing through the Customs Office.

Inauguration champagne corks had hardly hit the ground before President Sargsyan rode into the Customs house with a “new sheriff in town” message that was impressive for TV viewers who got to watch the Serzhinator open up a can of whupbutt on a customs officer who was either a prepared stooge for the cameras or simply a grunt whose karma had come home.

N1 Sargsyan publicly humiliated the officer for failing to have proper import transactions – a not so subtle suggestion that legitimate documents don’t exist in a government office known for its flim flam and known, too, as a desired place of employment because of the ease with which corners are cut and money is hidden.

It was a thrashing long overdue and a signal that democracy may have a chance to be imported here if the Chief of State is willing to take on the chief source of corruption.

Well done. Badly received, though, because of who’ll eventually pay the bill. It won’t be the gangster officers who’ve been breaking laws as long as there’ve been laws. It certainly won’t be oligarch-legislators whose sharp cut suits don’t come wrapped in the famously red-black-white plaid plastic of Istanbul bundles or the cardboard boxes from China.

When the graft that has been an off the books agreement between low-level bazaar traders and low-life customs thugs is properly funneled into state tills, Armen Armenian’s knock-off Armani is going to grow in price by the same price, plus vig.

The very early days of the Sargsyan Years portend an administration not afraid to take proper, if unpopular, measures in giant and uncompromising stride. Questionable, though, is whether baby steps more friendly to the electorate might have been more stabilizing for a staggering teenage toddler that – by the process that put this administration in power – has had her feet knocked from under her.

Beyond question, is the severe truth that N1 and N2 Sargsyan will earn whatever reward is found in their positions. Earning respect will be more challenging than earning the office.