"Russian org Virtus.pro will suddenly become Armenian, get rid of all sanctions, and continue competing like nothing happened." Regional top managers about new CEO of VP Exclusive
2022-09-16 17:16:00Ex-CEO of Virtus.pro, Roman "dvoryrom" Dvoryankin, and former top managers of HellRaisers spoke to Escorenews about the sudden reveal of VP's new head and investor. The mysterious Armenian Aram Karamanukyan came out of nowhere, and even the industry veterans were puzzled by the announcement.
When I was browsing and saw this tweet, my first thought was that someone hacked Virtus.pro's account. The message was looking weird.
I heard this name for the first time in my life, so I immediately opened Yandex and Google to learn who is he. The search showed me some Syrian general, born in 1910, so I was quite surprised.
Never heard of him before, and many of my friends saw this name for the first time. As I see it, this is the man from inner circles who has ties with Nikolai Petrosyan [ESforce CEO with Armenian origins]. Considering that many people get into esports via such connections, the situation is obvious.

Is this an attempt to avoid sanctions for Virtus.pro? Can it actually work?
That was my second thought. I think we should wait for an official announcement [Press release arrived after the publication]. VP is part of VK, which is a public company. This is why [this announcement] seems twice as strange.
If Aram has control over VP or is a prominent shareholder with a blocking stake, then, usually, such things are announced on the exchange. It affects the prices.
Armenian theatre is considered one of the oldest in history, together with Roman and Greek ones. I think we just got into the first seats of another promising show. The Russian org Virtus.pro will suddenly become Armenian, get rid of all sanctions, and will continue competing like nothing happened. Is there any real investment? Never in my life, I'll believe that. Old Gazprom money, and the new "CEO and investor." He probably loves basketball as well. [Reference to ex-CEO Glamazda, who loved basketball]
No chance. The organization and the holding won't get off that easily. They can put whoever they want at the top, but the club's actions are still the same. It will take a couple of years to clean the reputation: everyone understands that the holding is somewhere near the government.

How reasonable can such investment be?
Actually, it can be quite reasonable. VK is trying to sell ESforce for a very long time. If there's someone, who wants a share, it can be profitable for both parties. Obviously, considering the price significantly dropped down compared to previous years.
In general, I think that investing in a Russian org under sanctions is the last thing to do. The foreign market is closed as well as partners' revenue. There will be no prize payments. It looks like shuffling their own assets, only for the Russian inner market.
