Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said vaguely that Yerevan will choose “at some point” between continued membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and a formal bid to join the European Union.

“We don’t know what that choice will be,” Mirzoyan told reporters in Yerevan as he campaigned with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other senior members of the ruling Civil Contract party for the June 7 parliamentary elections. “Obviously, there will be no simultaneous membership of the EEU and the EU. There is no such question today.”

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government enacted a year ago a law that commits it to striving for Armenia’s accession to the EU. But it has still not made a formal membership bid. Nor has any EU member state voiced support for such a prospect.

Meanwhile, Moscow has repeatedly warned that Armenia risks losing its tariff-access to Russia’s market and discount on Russian natural gas vital for its economy. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Yerevan should choose between the two blocs “as soon as possible.”

A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, Mikhail Kalugin, echoed Putin’s statement on Tuesday. He said the Armenian leadership cannot continue to “view EEU membership as a temporary measure for the duration of the search for or the process of joining an alternative alliance.”

“Simply put, it’s impossible to sit on two chairs [simultaneously,” Kalugin told the official TASS news agency in an interview published on the ministry’s website.

“Armenia is not sitting now, now Armenia is standing, developing and moving forward,” countered Mirzoyan. “If you want an allegory so much, then it’s not two chairs, it’s 22 chairs.”

According to Armenian government data, Russia accounted for 35.8 percent of Armenian foreign trade last year, compared with the EU’s 11.7 percent share. It is the South Caucasus country’s principal export market. Also, the Russian gas price for the country was set well below international market-based levels even before their recent surge caused by the war in the Middle East.

Pashinian’s political opponents have for years said that his foreign policy is reckless in the absence of viable economic or security alternatives offered by the EU. Some of them claim that Armenia will face crippling Russian sanctions if Pashinian wins the upcoming elections.

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