The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament predicted a further deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations on Tuesday as he denounced Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Yerevan last week.
Zelenskyy visited the Armenian capital on May 4 to attend a European Political Community summit along with dozens of European Union leaders. In his speech at the summit, he implicitly threated to disrupt Russia’s May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow with drone strikes.
The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry decried Zelenskyy’s “terrorist” threats and Pashinian’s failure to respond to them. The Armenian premier rejected the criticism on Monday.
“It is absolutely obvious that this action on the part of Nikol Vovaevich cannot be called a friendly step towards our country, Russian citizens and the Armenian people,” State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a social media post, questioning Pashinian’s “morality and decency.”
“Today, a question became obvious to everyone: how will [Russian-Armenian] relations develop after Pashinian’s actions?” Volodin went on. “Will our states be closer or farther apart? Will there be less tension in the relations or more? The second [scenario] is most likely … That’s how it all started in Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin likewise noted at the weekend that Russia’s conflict with Ukraine broke out after Kyiv’s decision to strive for membership of the EU. Putin said Yerevan should choose “as soon as possible” between seeking to join the EU or remaining part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc.
Pashinian effectively dismissed that demand as well. Citing the ongoing parliamentary election campaign in Armenia, he also announced that he will not an EEU summit in Kazakhstan slated for May 28-29.
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