Yury Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, said the talks will take place on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek. He indicated that Putin will repeat his calls for Armenia to quickly choose between seeking to join the European Union and remaining part of a Russian-led economic bloc. The Russian leader will also bring up recent arrests of Armenian opposition leaders disagreeing with Pashinian’s pro-Western foreign policy, Ushakov told reporters.
“We continue to insist that Armenia cannot aspire to EU membership while simultaneously receiving enormous benefits from cooperation within the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union) framework,” the TASS news agency quoted him as saying. “This issue must be resolved somehow, and the president and the prime minister will undoubtedly discuss it.”
Putin reiterated that Yerevan must hold a referendum on the issue “as soon as possible” when he spoke with Pashinian by phone on July 27. The Armenian premier remains reluctant to do that.
Pashinian said on Monday that his administration will call such a vote only “after we have officially applied to the EU for membership, received an appropriate response and have a roadmap for the process.” Yerevan will launch soon a “process” of lodging a membership application, he said without specifying any dates.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized Pashinian’s stance in an interview with the Russian RBC news channel publicized on Friday. He said it “does not indicate a great deal of trust in Armenian voters or in the Armenian people.”
Moscow began pressing Yerevan to make such a choice shortly before effectively banning imports of Armenian agricultural products in late May and early June. Pashinian criticized the bans during his last call with Putin. He phoned the Russian president despite not being congratulated by the latter on winning Armenia’s disputed parliamentary elections held on June 7.
Russian-Armenian tensions have continued to rise since then, with senior officials from the two states regularly trading barbs over Yerevan’s European aspirations and other contentious issues. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned “repressions” against pro-Russian Armenian opposition leaders on Thursday two days after the arrest of former President Robert Kocharian. Ushakov also mentioned “mass arrests” of Pashinian’s political foes.
“This topic will undoubtedly be raised [at the Bishkek meeting,]” he said. “Of course, this line of the Armenian leadership is of great concern to us.”
