Armenian Prime Minister rebukes Putin and Lukashenko at summit in Russia
A meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council was held in St. Petersburg on December 25. During the meeting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made remarks about his country's position on the separation of economic and political issues, according to Azatutyun.
The head of the Armenian government says that "the Eurasian Economic Union is an economic association that should not have a political, let alone a geopolitical agenda."
"We continue to perceive it in this way and develop interaction within the framework of our economic cooperation in this context, seeking to stop all attempts to politicize Eurasian integration," Pashinyan says.
According to him, the EAEU and its economic principles should not correlate with political ambitions.
"The EAEU and its economic principles should not be associated with political ambitions. The fundamental freedoms of trade and integration cannot and should not be restricted for political reasons, as this will lead to corrosion of the fundamental principles of the association," the Prime Minister says.
In contrast to Pashinyan, Russian and Belarusian dictators Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko regularly advocate the politicization of all associations in the post-Soviet space.
Deterioration of Armenia's relations with Russia and Belarus
The Armenian authorities have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of effective support for the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the framework of international cooperation among its member states. In particular, the last such complaint about the presence of Russian military bases on the territory of the country was expressed by Armenia during active hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The CSTO members are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
In the summer, Armenia refused to participate in the Skela-2023 exercise in Belarus under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
At the end of October, it became known that the Armenian authorities were considering closing down Russian state TV channels because they had committed violations.
In early November, the Russian Federation stated that it perceived Armenia's participation in the Ukrainian peace formula summit in Malta as a "demonstrative anti-Russian gesture."