Armenia has only gained from preferring membership in a Russian-led bloc to an association agreement with the European Union, Russian State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin said during a visit to Yerevan on Tuesday.
Naryshkin claimed that Ukraine and Moldova, ex-Soviet states which have signed such agreements with the EU, have been hit hardest by Western economic sanctions imposed on Russia.
“Difficulties caused by the illegal sanctions are not only being successfully overcome but are also contributing to Eurasian integration,” he told a meeting with Armenian lawmakers and government officials. “The events of the past year have demonstrated just how strongly the monopoly of an overseas currency [the U.S. dollar] can damage international cooperation.”
In that regard, the pro-Kremlin head of Russia’s lower house of parliament described as “very timely” President Vladimir Putin’s calls for the eventual creation of a currency union of countries aligned in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
President Serzh Sarkisian, who met Naryshkin later in the day,” and other Armenian officials have also repeatedly stated that the EEU membership, effective from January, will earn Armenia significant economic benefits. They have denied critics’ assertions that Sarkisian’s decision to make Armenia part of the EEU was the result of strong Russian pressure.
The macroeconomic situation in Armenia has actually deteriorated in the last several months, however, because of a currency meltdown and deepening recession in Russia. Armenian exports to Russia have been hit very hard by a much weaker Russian ruble.
Speaking at the meeting with Naryshkin devoted to “Eurasian integration,” a senior official from the EEU’s Moscow-based executive body argued that Armenia would have suffered from Russia’s current economic woes even it had not joined the EEU. Tatyana Valovaya said the Russian-led union is a long-term project that allows its member states to discuss their economic problems “on an equal footing” and find “joint solutions.”
Armenian officials attending the meeting emphasized, meanwhile, the importance of Armenia’s commercial ties with not only Russia but also the EU and even the Middle East. “Armenia has a real chance to become a sort of bridge connecting the Eurasian Union with Iran and the Arab world on one side and the EU countries on the other,” said Deputy Economy Minister Emil Tarasian.
Sarkisian similarly said on March 17 that Yerevan wants to “combine” the EEU membership with a “deep and extensive agenda” with the EU.