Last Thursday, the Armenian government lead by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan approved a draft bill that proposes to start Armenia’s membership process with the EU. The bill will now be presented to Parliament for approval. Since then, Russian officials and politicians have commented on the Armenian bill, mostly negatively.
The spokesperson of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov said that the decision to join the EU is the right of a sovereign country, but remarked that Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and that this membership is being very beneficial for Armenia.
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk said that Armenia’s decision to join the EU would be its first step to leave the EAEU and that Armenia would suffer economic consequences if it would take this route including higher prices and a drop in exports. He compared Armenia’s EU membership process to buying a ticket for the Titanic. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the EU missions in Armenia accusing it of stoking tensions in the region.
Armenia is currently threatened by Azerbaijan as President Ilham Aliyev is claiming that more territories should be taken from Armenia following the capture of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2023. On the other hand, the Armenian government wants to settle the border disputes with Azerbaijan by keeping the current de facto borders.
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