Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of ‘a gentle, intelligent, and mutually beneficial divorce’ in relation to Armenia pursuing deepening ties with the EU. Pashinyan, instead suggested that his government ‘is guided in its interstate relations by an interstate logic’ and not a ‘marriage’.

‘We are a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and as long as we are a member of the EAEU, we fully participate in all decision-making’, Pashinyan said in a Monday press briefing.

In his comments on 9 May, Putin further voiced the necessity of Armenia holding a referendum to choose between the EU and the EAEU, based on which Moscow would draw conclusions and proceed with a ‘divorce’.

Pashinyan said he had communicated Armenia’s stance with Putin regarding the choice between the two blocs.

‘We will hold a referendum at the moment when there is an objective need for it. My assessment is that there is simply no such objective necessity. We treat our EAEU partners and our participation in the EAEU with great respect’, Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan further reiterated his government’s stance of a ‘balanced foreign policy’ and said there was no intention of ‘harming Russia’s interests’.

Armenia’s focus is to be ‘guided by Armenia’s national interests’, he said, adding that his government would ‘continue to deepen’ relations with Russia, while also ‘mov[ing] forward with the logic of deepening our future relations with the EU […] by deepening democratic reforms’.

During the same press briefing, Pashinyan reiterated his stance that bilateral relations with Russia are undergoing a ‘positive’ and ‘inevitable transformation’. In an apparent response, Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Kalugin warned that ‘Yerevan’s advancement along the so-called European path could at some point lead to systemic changes in Russian–Armenian relations’.

The comments marked the latest upswing in tensions between Armenia and Russia, coming after Putin’s testy meeting with Pashinyan in Moscow in April, when Putin underscored the impossibility of being in a customs union with the EU and the EAEU.

Pashinyan rejects ‘censorship’ of Zelenskyi’s comments

During the same press briefing, Pashinyan was also asked to address the note of protest submitted to Armenia by the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding remarks made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan earlier in May.

‘I do not think that, in my capacity as the head of government of the host country, I should censor or necessarily respond to everything’, Pashinyan said.

At the EPC summit, Zelenskyi referred to Russia’s planned 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow — the country’s most cherished holiday, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII — noting it would be held without military equipment for the first time ‘in many, many years’.

‘They cannot afford military equipment – and they fear drones may buzz over Red Square. This is telling. It shows they are not strong now’, Zelenskyi said.

Prior to the parade, Zelenskyi issued a presidential order explicitly saying there would be no strikes directed at Red Square on 9 May.

‘There have also been cases when, in my presence, the President of [Russia] made statements about different countries, but I do not remember Russia expecting me to respond to those statements’, Pashinyan said.

He further noted that Armenia’s simultaneous membership in various international organisations ‘does not mean we aim to interfere in all global affairs’.

‘We are a small country with our own agenda, and we do not always consider it necessary to take the lead on global issues and make statements’, Pashinyan stated.