Moscow-Yerevan relations may deteriorate if Pashinyan is re-elected: Alexander Krylov

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 statement by Mikhail Galuzin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, that Armenia will not be able to be a member of both the EU and the EAEU simultaneously.

“Galuzin’s statement means that the Russian leadership expects that, should the current leadership headed by Nikol Pashinyan be re-elected, Russian-Armenian relations will continue to deteriorate. And this deterioration will occur primarily along political lines, along the lines of military-political ties, and also along economic lines,” Krylov said.

In the expert’s view, Armenia’s rapprochement with the EU could lead the country to exit the EAEU.

“The assumption is that, since the current Armenian leadership wants to draw as close as possible to the European Union, it will be forced to take the EU’s position into account, including the possibility that a demand may follow to join the EU sanctions against Russia. And this, in turn, would entail Armenia’s withdrawal from the Eurasian Union, just as happened with the CSTO. That said, the initiator of such steps would not be the Russian leadership. Armenia has already frozen its CSTO membership for two years, yet the question of expelling Armenia from the organization has not been raised. The Russian leadership still hopes that Armenia’s leadership will not go definitively down the path of severing our historic relations,” Krylov concluded.