Armenia // THE COGNAC REPUBLIC

Russian Article as of Mar. 31, 2003
Kommersant
by Vladimir Gendlin and Dmitry Lebedev (photos)

Little Armenia has a whole set of brands that have become symbols of the country: brandy, Ararat, Radio Armenia, and finally Armenians themselves. Ironically, cognac recently turned out to be brandy, Ararat is outside the country, and so are most Armenians. And it turns out there never was a Radio Armenia.
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The world's largest Armenian community lives in California and is no less of a market for Armenian goods than Russia. [...]. Armenians resent the inaccessibility of the Russian market, especially since Armenia is Russia's main partner in the Transcaucasus: the country's entire antiaircraft defense system, as well as protection of the border with Turkey, the power industry, and many large companies (in repayment of debts to Russia), have been turned over to Russia.
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For Russians, Armenia remains a set of stereotypes. Two hundred years ago, a great poet expressively described a scene thus: "The Armenian kissed the young Greek woman." However, the story ended badly. Later, Armenians, like Georgians, were identified with market vendors, although it is not they - Azerbaijanis who control Moscow's markets.

Without a doubt, the most outstanding Armenian brand is cognac. The appearance of a bottle of Ararat, Ani, Nairi, Akhtamar, or Vaspourakan on a holiday table added prestige to the occasion. [...] even after French owners arrived at the Yerevan Cognac Factory, its products continued to be called cognac in Russia, and not brandy.
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Armenians were insulted when their cognac started being called brandy following the example of the French. [...]. The industrialist Nerses Tairiants brought the technology from France and founded the Yerevan Cognac Factory in 1887. Twelve years later, his company was bought by Nikolai Shustov's trading house, purveyor to the court of His Imperial Majesty. Shustov's personal cask has been stored in the aging room since 1902, and only three people have drunk from it: Marshal of the Soviet Union Hovaness Bagramian, Boris Yeltsin, and President of Armenia Robert Kocharian.
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In June 1998, the factory passed to the hands of the French company Pernod Ricard. According to Pierre Larretche, the factory's president and general director, Pernod Ricard wanted to strengthen its positions on CIS markets. However, 1998 was the year of the Russian default and within a year, output had decreased from 3.5 million bottles to 1 million. Production was restored to previous volumes only last year. [...].
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Viticulture has started losing out to the rapidly growing tobacco industry, [...] today this occupation is five to six times more profitable that any other agricultural sector. However, when peasants in the Ararat Valley (which is where cognac grapes are grown) went so far as to tear up their vineyards in order to expand the area under tobacco, the tobacco company's management took pity on cognac and stopped buying tobacco from Ararat peasants.
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At first, it seemed fairly straightforward to locate a radio outlet where a group of specially trained wits sat splitting their sides with their own jokes and transmitting them around the world. However, in answer to our questions about Radio Armenia, Armenians only shrugged their shoulders enigmatically.

After some in-depth intelligence work, we came up with several versions. [...].
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.