Rubinian reacted to his Russian counterpart Vyacheslav Volodin, who denounced as “cynical” and “deceitful” the Armenian government’s desire to remain part of a Russian-led trade bloc while striving to join the EU.
“If Armenia adopts a law on intent to join the European Union, then why are you (Armenians) taking advantage of the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union)?” Volodin told Russian state television earlier in the day. “Why are you deceiving its members?”
“Are you going to the European Union? Go ahead. But then you shouldn’t get preferential treatment here,” he said, repeating Moscow’s calls for an Armenian referendum on EU membership.
“It’s a well-known fact that it’s our EEU partners who are trying to make us do this because they keep saying that we should hold a referendum,” Rubinian said in this regard.
“We are not the ones who are doing anything to undermine relations with Russia,” he told reporters. “On the contrary, we have been doing everything for having normal and friendly relations. In this context, I think that [Russia’s] unfair and inappropriate restrictions used against Armenian exporters do not correspond to the spirit of Russian-Armenian relations or Eurasian Economic Union rules.”
Moscow imposed the embargo in May and June as it began pressuring Yerevan to quickly choose between the EU and the Eurasian Union. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Monday that he will initiate the referendum on the issue only “after we have officially applied to the EU for membership, received an appropriate response and have a roadmap for the process.”
Pashinian announced that he will launch soon a “process” of lodging a membership application. He did give any dates. Rubinian, who is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, also declined to speculate about any time frames.
No EU member state or institution has voiced explicit support for Armenia’s eventual accession to the 27-nation bloc. Not surprisingly, the EU’s reaction to Pashinian’s announcement was rather cautious. European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho said on Tuesday that the EU views Yerevan’s membership ambitions “with interest.”
“We are already working to bring Armenia closer to the EU via, for example, connectivity, trade and many more things that we do with them,” another spokesman for the EU’s executive body, Markus Lammert, told reporters in Brussels, according to the AFP news agency.
Armenian opposition leaders see Pashinian’s European integration drive as reckless, saying that he is needlessly antagonizing Russia without having a real prospect for EU membership.
“The EU obviously has no intention to discuss Armenia’s membership, let alone give the green light for it,” said Artur Khachatrian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Hayastan alliance,
Khachatrian claimed that Pashinian pledged to step up the membership efforts in hopes of having the EU turn a blind eye to his “new wave of repressions” against the Armenian opposition.