Electric Yerevan

Social movements and popular protests organized around them against government policies have become a part of global politics since the Occupy Wall Street movement. Although the immediate cause differs, they all have similar underlying motivations: The inability of governments to understand the demands of society and find a compromise, the use of excessive police force against the people and the people's deep down loss of trust.

The latest example of social unrest hit Armenia on June 17, following a decision by the regulatory body to raise the electricity prices by 16 percent, effective from Aug. 1. The raise triggered some people to protest against the government's decision on June 19, which, as in previous examples, turned into a much bigger protest after police used excessive force against demonstrators on June 23. Despite Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's pledge on July 27 to review the decision, the protestors are still blocking Yerevan's main thoroughfare, Baghramian Avenue, where the parliament building, the presidential residence and many embassies are located.

The fact Armenia is a close strategic ally of Russia and most of the country's assets, among them electricity, are owned by Russian businesses makes recent this turbulence all the more interesting. Pro-Russian analysts and media outlets have already denounced the demonstrators as "pawns of the games of great powers," while some Russian officials likened them to the Euromaidan protesters of 2013-14 in Ukraine, also highlighting their similarities to the color revolutions of the early 2000s. The recent memory of toppling Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's former president, with similar tactics used by the protestors and criticism from Western countries regarding the heavy-handed methods of...