Pashinian said that his government will launch a “process” of making an EU membership bid soon despite Russian sanctions and threats to kick Armenia out of the Eurasian Economic Union. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that after filing such an application the South Caucasus country will have to bring its laws and regulations into conformity with EU standards.
“These norms are at odds with those adopted in our country and those adopted in the EEU,”
Peskov told a news briefing. “And this is precisely where we will encounter profound contradictions that will primarily harm Armenia itself.”
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, reacted far more furiously to Pashinian’s announcement.
“It's clear that Armenia will never join the European Union suffering from chronic illnesses but will ruin its relations with Russia and other EEU countries for a long time,” Medvedev told the official TASS news agency.
“This is the price of the schizoid ambitions of this small country’s current ruler, which are heavily laced with betrayal of national interests, [George] Soros's money and the satanic persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church,” he said.
Medvedev, who is also the chairman of the ruling United Russia party, already attacked Pashinian in May as Moscow began banning multimillion-dollar imports of Armenian agricultural products in retaliation against Yerevan’s continuing drift to the EU.
“Apparently, he thinks we're suckers,” he told the RIA Novosti news agency. “He's made a major miscalculation and is pursuing a course that's extremely dangerous for his country.”
Yerevan did not respond to the Russian ex-president notorious for his blunt rhetoric.