ARMENIA JOINS RUSSIAN-BACKED CUSTOMS UNION

Europe Online Magazine
Sept 3 2013

Europe
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online

Moscow (dpa) – Armenia has joined a Russian-dominated customs union,
joining fellow former Soviet republics Kazakhstan and Belarus as
members, reported Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan along with Russian
President Vladimir Putin after a meeting Tuesday.

Putin told the Itar-Tass news agency that he expected a “strong
impulse for mutually valuable economic development” now that the
southern Caucasus nation has joined.

Armenia is also apparently interested in helping set up a Eurasian
economic union. Putin would see such a group as a link between the
European Union and the Pacific region.

Russia maintains thousands of troops in Armenia. Armenia is also
economically dependent upon Russia, which is home to a million-strong
Armenian diaspora.

The three-member customs union was founded in 2010 as a counterweight
to the EU. Putin hopes to use economic pressure to get Ukraine to also
become a member, even though that country is seeking an association
agreement with the EU.