Khudatian insisted that this is not a consequence of Russia’s threats to hike the price of its natural gas supplied to Armenia. Khudatian said they also agreed in principle to expand a long-running swap arrangement whereby Armenia supplies electricity to Iran in payment for Iranian gas imported by it. Armenia imported less than 500 million cubic meters of Iranian gas last year in addition to around 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas supplied via Georgia. According to Ara Marjanian, an Armenian energy expert, the Iranian gas is currently twice as expensive for Armenia as the Russian gas. The Russian gas price for Armenia has long been set well below international market levels.