Armenia does not plan to leave EAEU, says Russian MP

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Friday 4:34 PM GMT
Armenia does not plan to leave EAEU, says Russian MP
 
YEREVAN February 15
The reports claiming that Armenia is planning to leave the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are false, head of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee on CIS Relations, Eurasian Integration, and Russian Diaspora Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov, who is currently in Armenia on a working visit, said.
  
YEREVAN, February 15. /TASS/. The reports claiming that Armenia is planning to leave the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are false, head of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee on CIS Relations, Eurasian Integration, and Russian Diaspora Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov, who is currently in Armenia on a working visit, said.
 
"All reports, including those in the Russian media, about Armenia leaving the EAEU, about outside forces facilitating it, are untrue. I think that the parliament has made a certain step in the right direction by creating a committee on regional issues and Eurasian integration. Armenia and EAEU are closely connected, which provides an economic effect, and the numbers support that," the Russian MP stressed.
 
According to the Kalashnikov, during his working visit, he met with Armenian Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and head of the Standing committee on Eurasian and Regional Integration Mikael Melkumyan.
 
"I’ve invited the speaker to a series of events, namely, the session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in Bishkek, the meeting of Eurasia’s speakers in Kazakhstan and the second International Forum [on the Development of Parliamentarism], which will take place in Moscow," he added.
 
In January, the new parliament of Armenia established a new standing committee on regional issues and Eurasian integration, led by head of the opposition fraction "Prosperous Armenia" Mikael Melkumyan.