MOSCOW (Azatutyun) — Armenia’s government risks plunging the country into widespread poverty with plans to seek its membership in the European Union, Russia said on Friday, January 31, in yet another warning to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, spoke at length about Armenia’s economic dependence on and increased trade with Russia. Zakharova pointed to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk’s repeated warnings that an EU membership bid would mark the beginning of its withdrawal from the Eurasian Economic (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc. She said the South Caucasus nation would thus lose access to Russia’s vast market vital for its economy.
“According to some estimates, the export of Armenian goods would shrink by around 80 percent,” Zakharova told reporters.
“Armenian products would face higher duties,” she said. “All this would lead to a sharp drop in the GDP growth rate… If we are talking about the scale of manufacturing, about the population of Armenia, this could simply lead to total impoverishment.”
Overchuk first issued such warnings on January 9 hours after Pashinyan’s government endorsed a bill calling for the “start of a process of Armenia’s accession to the European Union.” Armenian officials responded by saying that Yerevan has no plans yet to leave the EEU.
“We feel pretty good in the EEU,” Pashinyan told a news conference on January 31. “The figures you cited speak for themselves. But at the same time, we cannot help but notice the desire of a part of the Armenian people to shape options for the future of Armenia.”
