Samvel Aleksanyan, the businessman/member of parliament who owns the Yerevan City supermarket chain in the Armenian capital doesn't hide the fact that he wants to get reelected in 2012 to represent the Malatia-Sebastia District.

His campaign has already kicked-off with a splash. Aleksanyan is doling out money to sponsor students and to cover the medical expenses of the infirm.

A few days ago, Aleksanyan even covered the cost of taking 130 district residents to the Georgia seaside resort of Kubatli.

The MP stated that he wanted to afford the people the opportunity of "swimming in style."

But what's money to a man like Aleksanyan. If he wanted to, he could have bused everyone in Malatia-Sebastia to Kubatli for a good swim.

His revenues are steadily increasing year by year, thanks in a large part, to the monopoly hold he enjoys in several sectors.

In 2008, his financial disclosure submitted to parliament listed total revenues as tipping 316 million AMD. And this is just what is officially being reported.

In 2009, MP Aleksanyan reported revenues of 439.5 million AMD. Naturally, there is no agency in Armenia capable of auditing and verifying these figures. There is neither the political will nor the technical capacity to do so.

I tried to get some information regarding the scope of MP Aleksanyan's charitable works, so I called his cell phone number. An unidentified man on the other end told me that the MP was in Gyumri and that he'd be back in a week or so.

Then I asked if it was true that Aleksanyan took all those people to Kubatli.

"Yeah, he took them," said the stranger. "Direct your other questions to the MP directly."