Russia (*aggressor country) has suspended the sale of Jermuk mineral water from Armenia. Information is being verified that one of the bottles contained vinegar and this caused the death of a pensioner in Vladikavkaz. Life.ru found out who makes money from this water in Armenia and in our country.
Why were sales of Jermuk mineral water suspended?
The well-known Armenian mineral water Jermuk in Russia (*aggressor country) came under suspicion after the death of a 65-year-old pensioner in Vladikavkaz. He drank liquid from a glass bottle with a branded label, and there was vinegar inside. With burns to the esophagus, the poor fellow was taken by special plane to the capital’s Sklifosovsky Research Institute. The doctors didn’t save me. The saleswoman just shrugs: she sold what they brought. The deceased was her regular customer and bought “Jermuk” in boxes.
The pensioner had empty mineral water bottles at home; perhaps he himself or someone close to him accidentally poured vinegar into one of them.
Products from the store were confiscated for inspection. Pending its results, all last supplies of water are withdrawn from sale.
There are now almost 2.5 million potentially dangerous bottles on the country’s shelves and warehouses. The location of everyone has been determined and blocked for legal sale. Retail trading companies containing them on their balance sheets received notifications in their personal accounts.
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Article 238 of the Criminal Code (provision of services that do not meet safety requirements, resulting in death). The police sealed the mineral water distributor’s warehouse.
Seized 24 packages of Jermuk mineral water“Jermuk” has been exported to Russia (*aggressor country) since the beginning of the 2000s; now the export volume exceeds 15 million liters per year.
Who owns the Jermuk brand
The Armenian company Jermuk Group is currently commenting on the situation on a routine basis. They say that when producing mineral water, acetic acid is not used, production is automated in a closed cycle, and we are counting on finding out the circumstances of the tragic incident.
Mineral water “Jermuk” has been produced in the Armenian city of the same name since 1951. The plant was built by the Soviet authorities. Now owns the brand Ashot Arsesyan, a famous and influential person in Armenia. But he made his career in Jermuk.
In the 80s, he was a buyer at a city car depot and deputy head physician of a local sanatorium. After perestroika, he became director of the Jermuk plant. In 1996 he was elected mayor of the city, in 1999 he bought the production of mineral water and founded the Jermuk Group. In the 2000s, he received the position of distributor of the international company PepsiCo in Armenia and acquired 85% of the shares of the PepsiCo plant in Georgia. For many years he worked as a deputy from the parliamentary majority, the Republican Party of Armenia.
Ashot ArsenyanWho makes money from Jermuk in Russia (*aggressor country)
According to the business press, technically the supply was carried out by the Novocherkassk company LLC Mineral Water Jermuk. This is a subsidiary of the Armenian Jermuk Group registered seven years ago. Revenues for 2022 amounted to 592 million rubles. Taxes paid to the country’s budget amounted to 7 million rubles. Executive Director works there Arsen Ohanjanyan. Judging by social networks, he is not a rich man, living in Novocherkassk in a modest private house.
For the last 20 years, “Jermuk” has been represented in Russia (*aggressor country) by one trading and wholesale company – LLC “Trading House “Jermuk”. Journalists contacted its general director Alexander Karaoglanov. He answered briefly: all the studies and protocols are in hand, I’m going to a meeting with Rospotrebnadzor.
Jermuk’s income has been growing all the time and in 2022 reached 850 million rubles. At the same time, there was no net profit on which the corresponding tax was paid: a loss of minus 13 million rubles was recorded. According to the accounting reports, just the year before last, the Jermuk Trade House paid 15 million rubles in taxes. The enterprise is registered as a small one. Formally, there are eight people on staff. According to the SPARK database, there were no supervisory checks.
Alexander Karaoglanov heads the Jermuk Trading House and does not own a controlling stake there for long. He inherited the business from his father Sergei Karaoglanov, a general who died a couple of years ago in his cottage near Moscow. Karaoglanov Sr. served in the GRU and headed the VO Oboronexport. perestroika was engaged in construction and, according to some sources, worked well with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Moscow Government during the Luzhkov era, Joseph Ordzhonikidze.Shortly before his death, he controlled companies selling sturgeon and black caviar.
Sergey KaraoglanovKaraoglanov Jr. is also a former official. His track record includes management positions in the Ministry of Economic Development and Vneshtorgbank.
He does not run social networks under his own name. According to some reports, he is still registered in his father’s former service apartment. We are talking about a large three-ruble ruble in the Tskov Brezhnevka building on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street with windows overlooking the Devichye Pole square. The cost is about 60 million rubles.
