Save us, help us – Pashinyan’s call to Putin: Yevgeny Semibratov

Yevgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at RUDN University, commented to Alpha News on the conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

According to the expert, Nikol Pashinyan’s statements can be viewed as a kind of cry for help: “Save us, help us!” – because the restrictions imposed by the Russian Federation on Armenian agricultural producers are very painful for Armenia.

“In a situation where the European Union has effectively abandoned Pashinyan by declaring that Armenian-made agricultural products are not needed on the European market, the Russian market becomes not just exclusive, it becomes the only option for Armenian producers. Accordingly, Pashinyan needs quick solutions here and now. I don’t think Pashinyan is strategically ready, to put it plainly, to change course. Right now he needs to achieve immediate goals related to meeting the needs of Armenian agricultural producers and securing access to the huge Russian market. Therefore, such statements by Pashinyan should be understood solely as an attempt to achieve his tactical objectives, without departing from his strategic course aimed at shifting Armenia’s geopolitical choice toward Western structures and the Euro-Atlantic sphere. Moscow and the Kremlin understand this move perfectly well, which, in principle, is what the president of the Russian Federation stated. As we can judge from the phone call readout published on the Kremlin’s website, the Russian leader is effectively presenting the Armenian prime minister with a choice: you are either with us or with them. Because sponsoring a country, in one way or another, generally allowing a country onto the Russian market on exclusive terms, I stress, a country that has recently been hard to call a genuine ally of Russia at the political level, is naturally not in Russia’s interests. So this is the line that Moscow has laid out for Pashinyan. This is, purely and simply, the substance of it,” Semibratov said.

According to the political analyst, denying access to the Russian market will effectively undermine Pashinyan’s popularity within Armenia, and will strike a broader blow against the idea of European integration and association.

“When Russia effectively closes its market, and Europe, frankly speaking, abandons Armenia as well, in these conditions Russia’s position becomes a very serious argument in support of the pro-Russian political forces that exist in Armenia. There are also political forces that advocate a constructive approach in relations with the Russian Federation. Overall, it is important to demonstrate to the Armenian people, to Armenian society, that Russia has always treated Armenia with great warmth and continues to do so, but Russia will not allow Armenia to be turned into yet another anti-Russian battering ram in the mold of Ukraine and the Baltic states in the post-Soviet space, at least not at its own expense. It is precisely this line that should prevail in Armenian society and contribute to the necessary reset of the political elites currently in power in Armenia,” Semibratov concluded.