Russia says economic ties with Armenia will be ‘reassessed’ if it joins the EU

Armenia’s growing ties with the West will fundamentally reshape its economic relations with the Kremlin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk told reporters on Thursday.

‘We understand that if Armenia is moving toward Europe, then it will inevitably necessitate a comprehensive reassessment of our economic relations with the country’, Overchuk said.

‘Unfortunately, this will have an impact on the standard of living in Armenia, which is something we would very much like to avoid’, he added.

Earlier this week, the Armenian Parliament adopted a bill calling for the government to seek accession to the EU, representing a significant shift in Armenia’s foreign policy perspective away from its long-time ally Russia.

The process mostly started after Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. The deterioration of bilateral relations deepened when Armenia faced a lack of support from Russia and the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) during the Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia in 2021 and 2022.

Armenia is currently a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), along with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Since the issue of Armenia’s potential accession to the EU has been raised, there have been conflicting statements from Armenian politicians about the possibility of being in both blocs at the same time.

Nonetheless, joining the EU would require Armenia to leave the EAEU.

The EU and EAEU mandate members to follow their own set of internal rules and standards, which are not compatible with each other. Both organisations also include a customs union — a free trade zone with unified trade tariffs on outside imports.

This was reiterated by Overchuk in his comments on Thursday, who said that ‘Armenia will inevitably have to make a definitive choice, as it is entirely unrealistic to choose both blocs simultaneously’.

When Armenia’s bill to join the EU was originally introduced earlier this year, Overchuk said that Armenia’s accession to the EU is ‘incompatible’ with its EAEU membership and puts the country ‘before a choice’.

He also warned it could have economic consequences, which he echoed in his comments on Thursday.

Trade turnover between Russia and Armenia is significantly higher than between Armenia and the EU, which ‘clearly demonstrates the economic advantages of trading within the EAEU as opposed to engaging with Europe’, Overchuk said.

However, in separate comments on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan maintain regular contacts, and claimed that Armenia ‘feels’ the importance of its ties to EAEU.

Pashinyan castigates Karabakh movement and political opponents in emotional parliamentary outburst

In response, former President Serzh Sargasyan’s office called Pashinyan a ‘national security threat’.

OC MediaXandie (Alexandra) Kuenning