“If this government miraculously stays in power, Armenia’s economy will be plunged into a deep crisis,” former President Robert Kocharian said during an election campaign rally in central Yerevan on Sunday. “And what for? For the sake of one person who wants to cling to power.”
“I honestly don’t know why they are artificially turning us into an enemy of Russia,” he told thousands of supporters of his Hayastan alliance. “They are taking us down the destructive path of Ukraine. We don’t need that, my dear people. What we need is allied relations with Russia and very good relations with both Europe and the United States.”
Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), likewise expressed concern over the economic impact of the Russian bans as he campaigned in the northern Lori province at the weekend.
“Why are we feuding with Russia?” Tsarukian said. “Do we have better options? People go there for work, people export goods, and every month $160 million in remittances comes from Russia.”
“You’ve heard the Russian president’s speech,” he added, alluding to Vladimir Putin’s latest warning that the Armenian government must choose between striving to join the European Union and remaining part of a Russian-led trade bloc that gives Armenia tariff-free access to Russia’s market and a significant discount on the price of Russian natural gas.
Levon Zurabian, the top election candidate of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, spoke on Monday of an “impending energy and economic collapse” in the country. He claimed that Pashinian has “dragged us into a proxy war between the West and Russia and Iran.”
Russia is Armenia’s leading commercial partner, having accounted for 36 percent of its foreign trade last year. Armenian farmers, agribusiness firms and alcohol producers are particularly dependent on the Russian market. Nevertheless, Pashinian insisted last Thursday that the Russian sanctions do not pose “any threat to Armenia's developing economy.”
Pashinian’s three main election challengers -- Hayastan, the BHK and Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian’s Strong Armenia bloc -- have pledged to repair Russian-Armenian relations if they win the elections. The Armenian premier has repeatedly branded them Russian “agents” and “spies” on the campaign trail.