‘This is a hostile act’: expert on Pashinyan’s refusal to attend Putin’s inauguration

Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Vasily Koltashov commented on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s refusal to attend Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration.

According to the expert, Russia cannot interpret Pashinyan’s visit to the EAEU meeting and refusal to attend Putin’s inauguration as anything other than a hostile act.

“Most likely, it will be announced that Pashinyan cannot stay for the inauguration of the Russian President for technical reasons. Meanwhile, we know that the European Union, where the Armenian administration is primarily oriented, has already announced that it does not recognize the Russian elections. In this sense, Pashinyan’s visit to the Eurasian Economic Union event and refusal to attend the inauguration of the Russian President will be considered a certain gesture. Moscow cannot interpret this as anything other than a hostile act. At the same time, Moscow understands that the pattern of Armenia’s behavior was dictated by the United States and England.

Armenia wants to take as much as possible from the Russian market through participation in the Eurasian Economic Union, while demonstrating that it is pursuing a multi-vector policy and is focused on joining the European Union,” Koltashov said.

According to the political scientist, it is quite difficult for Russia to change its policy towards Armenia.

“This sliding on different waves will most likely lead to Moscow gradually changing its policy towards Armenia. But we must say that changing it is quite difficult because Moscow, in the current circumstances, is a hostage to its own mistakes to the same extent as Pashinyan is a hostage to the development of events. Everything is not at all how he imagined it.

There is nothing with which it will be possible to punish Pashinyan yet. Moscow cannot ban Armenia from supplying food products to the Russian market or abandon its intermediary role in trade because it now needs all intermediaries. However, a conscious move toward a colder attitude toward the Armenian administration is what needs to happen. Why? Because Russia tried for a long time to tame the Armenian administration, and it didn’t work out,” Koltashov concluded.