‘Armenia wants to do a flip towards the EU, but that doesn’t mean it will happen’: Denis Denisov

January 23 2025, 12:55

Politics

Speaking with Alpha News, Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, commented on the meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan as well as a draft bill initiating Armenia’s accession to the European Union.

“Lavrov emphasized several times that he assessed this meeting as very positive, but at the same time, at the final press conference, the parties highlighted many different issues that were discussed during this meeting. Neither the Russian nor the Armenian foreign minister mentioned the draft bill on the beginning of the process of Armenia’s accession to the European Union. Therefore, we should read between the lines; if there had been progress on this issue, if there had been a consolidated position or at least outlines of a bilateral understanding of this problem, then it would have been discussed. But since this was not done, this problem remains unresolved.

Armenia is officially a member of the EAEU and is currently trying to use some slogan documents to mark its path in the other direction, that is, to the European Union. And here we should understand that integration into the EU is not a one-way street. Have we heard statements from official EU representatives, including the European Commission, that they are ready to integrate Armenia in the short or long term? There have been no such statements, so it is certainly premature to talk about Armenia leaving the EAEU and joining the EU. There are a number of mechanisms for this, and none of them have been used yet,” the expert noted.

According to Denisov, the Russian market is strategically important and necessary for Armenia, and abandoning it could lead to the collapse of the state.

“Some representatives of the Armenian political elite would like to do a flip towards the EU, but that does not mean it will happen. At the moment, these documents should be treated as information wars. And even more so, the key point is that the foreign ministers talked about the growing trade turnover between Russia and Armenia. After all, the Russian market is strategically important and necessary for Armenia, so it would be absurd to just cut it off. This could simply lead to the collapse of the state,” Denisov said.