Alexander Krylov: Russia-Armenia relations may deteriorate if Yerevan moves closer to EU

Alexander Krylov, Chief Research Fellow at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), has commented to Alpha News on the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia.

According to the expert, after Pashinyan’s visits to European countries, his position on the further development of relations with Russia may become more definite.

“If the European partners advised him not to rush and still not to break sharply with Russia, then we can expect that issues such as the price of gas, Armenia’s continued membership in the Eurasian Union and, perhaps, the lifting of some measures against Russian business will be resolved,” Krylov said.

In Krylov’s view, if Yerevan instead receives a signal from its European partners that Russia needs to be pushed further out of the South Caucasus, this could lead to a significant deterioration in Russian-Armenian relations.

“If the European partners have decided it is time to push Russia out of the South Caucasus region by all means, then Nikol Pashinyan will show resolve, and we can expect relations between Armenia and Russia to deteriorate quite radically, up to and including the withdrawal of the base, a review of gas prices, withdrawal from the CSTO, final withdrawal from the Eurasian Union, and joining the blockade and sanctions against Russia adopted by the European Union. This scenario is also quite plausible, but everything depends on what exactly Nikol Pashinyan and his European partners have agreed,” Krylov concluded.