ArmInfo. There are no objective reasons for selling the South Caucasus Railway (SCR, a subsidiary of Russian Railways) concession to a third party. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk stated this in an interview with TASS.
"It is obvious to us that there are no objective reasons for selling the SCR concession to any third party," he noted.
The deputy prime minister emphasized that in Russia, "it is customary to judge not by words, but by deeds, and they are saying that they first took away the ownership rights of a private electric power company, and now they are raising the issue of a railway concession." "How should we respond to this?" he asked.
He also emphasized that all of Russia's neighbors, even those in the EU, are interested in using Russian railways; only Armenia is questioning continued cooperation. "As for Armenian concerns about the presence of a Russian company and the fact that no one will cooperate with it, the following can be said.
Throughout the former Soviet Union, there is a single railway track - 1520. Russian railway workers have a high professional reputation, and the presence of a single track necessitates close cooperation, which, as a rule, is non-political and purely technical in nature. After all, a train can't bypass its own track. All our neighbors, some of whom are even EU members, are interested in using the Russian railway network and cooperating with Russian Railways, and only the Armenian leadership is questioning continued cooperation," he noted.
He noted that railway workers maintain close ties with each other, are able to quickly negotiate and develop new routes. "Incidentally, Yerevan recently saw this for themselves when, at the end of 2025, Azerbaijan allowed cargo to be transported to Armenia through its territory," Overchuk added.
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that Armenian leaders are speaking to Russia, the region's largest shipper, about the "undesirability of its presence" in the republic. "As the current holders of the railway concession in Armenia, we have a legitimate question about the railway's capacity and the return on investment in these two short sections if service is restored. I am sure that any other investor whom the Armenian leadership would prefer to see instead of Russia would ask the same questions. At least, friendly countries to whom Armenia is proposing to sell this concession are already asking us. And we don't hide our doubts from our friends," he emphasized.
At the same time, Overchuk warned Armenia of serious consequences if the railway concession is sold. "As a result of the proposed concession sale, the Armenian railway will not only lose Russian cargo but also, most likely, its relationship with Russian Railways," Overchuk said in an interview with TASS. He explained that "given the factors affecting the competitiveness of Caspian shipping, significant cargo flows from Central Asian countries to Armenia and Turkey and back will pass through the Russian Federation."
"We simply need to be able to see a little further and predict how events will develop, especially when it comes to long-term investments such as port infrastructure and railways," the Russian Deputy Prime Minister noted.
On March 26, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan would not object to transferring the concession for the management of the republic's railways to a Kazakh company if an agreement on this issue could be reached with Russia. Back in February of this year, Pashinyan began raising the issue of transferring the Russian concession to a third friendly party. He mentioned Kazakhstan, the UAE, and Qatar as possible options. He argued that Yerevan was losing its competitive advantages and that the railway issue should be resolved with Russia "in a friendly, fraternal manner."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Nikol Pashinyan's statement that the Russian concession management of Armenian railways creates competitive disadvantages for the Armenian side "strange." She emphasized that the Russian operator is an entity that does not deprive the Republic of Armenia of competitive advantages, but, on the contrary, creates them.
As a reminder, South Caucasus Railways CJSC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian Railways OJSC. On February 13, 2008, a concession agreement was signed in Yerevan between Russian Railways and the Republic of Armenia transferring the Republic's rail transport system to the management of South Caucasus Railways (SCR).
According to the agreement, the concession management term is 30 years, with the right to extend it for an additional 10 years after the first twenty years of operation by mutual agreement of the parties. SCR's objectives include modernizing the Republic of Armenia's railway infrastructure, developing cooperation with Armenia's neighboring countries, and developing domestic and international passenger and freight service. The Company's investment totals $572 million. SCR commenced operations on June 1, 2008.
