Alexander Pracht
Russia is concerned by Armenia’s growing interest in joining the European Union, citing what it sees as the EU’s confrontational strategy toward Moscow and its transformation into an “aggressive military and political bloc,” a Russian foreign ministry official said in an interview published Friday by the state news agency TASS.
“We expect that Armenia, as a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union, will be aware of the potential negative consequences of establishing closer ties with Brussels, both for our allied relations and for the development of integration processes in the post-Soviet space,” Vladislav Maslennikov, head of the ministry’s European affairs department, said.
Maslennikov said Moscow respects Yerevan’s right to choose which international blocs to join, but reiterated Russia’s long-standing position that simultaneous membership in the EU and the Russian-led EEU is not possible. He also argued that the EU would require Armenia to adopt its trade and product standards, which he claimed contradict those of the EEU.
“At a certain stage of the accession process, Brussels begins to demand full solidarity with its foreign policy line from any candidate country. Today, that line is openly anti-Russian,” he said.
Maslennikov’s comments echoed rhetoric repeatedly used in recent years by senior Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, when addressing Armenia’s relations with the EU.
In March last year, Armenia’s parliament adopted the EU Integration Act, calling on the government to begin a path toward EU membership. However, Armenia has not yet submitted a formal membership application. The country has been a member of the Russian-led EEU since 2015, alongside three other post-Soviet states, granting it access to a common market for labor and goods.
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