U.S.: Financial Aid Ready To Flow To Armenia

March 28, 2006
RFE/RL
By Julie A. Corwin

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- "The compact we are signing today will directly improve the lives of 750,000 Armenians, three-quarters of the country's rural population," Condoleezza Rice said at the ceremony. "Over the next five years, Armenians will build almost 1,000 kilometers of rural roads," she continued.

"They will upgrade their irrigation and drainage systems. They will plant new crops and through all of this the United States will provide Armenia with the technical assistance and credit support that it urgently needs."
[...]
The money from the MCC will be disbursed over a five-year period and will be contingent on Armenia's policy performance in three areas: "ruling justly, investing in people, and encouraging economic freedom." More specifically, Rice said that the United States expects Armenia to deliver on its pledges to improve the conduct of national elections.
[...]
Richard Giragosian, a Washington-based independent analyst, is skeptical that Armenia will suffer any financial repercussions in future regardless of how the future elections are conducted. He told RFE/RL that the U.S. government has delivered consistent warnings, citing the recent visits of the Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza to Yerevan.

But, according to Giragosian, "the feeling is that the Armenians have not really learned any lessons from past electoral violations and are still likely to resort to their habitual ballot rigging." The key question, he said, is one of degree, that is, how blatant will the vote rigging and other types of election fraud be in practice.

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.