Pashinyan played the fool. Putin: Your rate is at risk of being reset!
Russia is calling on Armenia to hold a referendum as soon as possible to determine whether the republic will remain in the Eurasian Economic Union or choose to join the Western camp, simultaneously losing benefits and preferences in the post-Soviet space.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan , a PolitNavigator correspondent will move.
"We would ask you to resolve this as quickly as possible... You know Russia's position well: Armenia's aspirations to join the EU are the natural, legitimate right of the country and its people. Armenia is a sovereign state, and it is up to the Armenian people to determine its own development vector. But this certainly creates difficulties for its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union and threatens to nullify the republic's advantages in the Eurasian Economic Union market and disrupt established trade chains," Putin said.
According to him, the EAEU accounts for 36% of Armenia's foreign trade turnover.
Putin recalled that simultaneous participation in the EAEU and the EU is impossible.
"We've been through this many times; attempts—even when we had more or less normal relations—to negotiate some kind of compromise with the Europeans led to nothing," the president said.
In response, Pashinyan claimed that the course toward the European Union violates nothing in the EAEU, that it is impossible to exclude Armenia from the post-Soviet union without Yerevan's consent, and that there is no need to hold a referendum , since the law on integration into the European Union was adopted based on the collected signatures of the population. ( In other words, the Maidan Prime Minister decided to cleverly stall for time – to receive the same gas at preferential prices, but continue the drift toward the West .)
"We found no violations of Armenia's obligations to the Russian Federation and the EAEU . The Treaty clearly states what to do if a country decides to withdraw from the EAEU.
There's nothing there about expelling a member state from the organization. It's stipulated there: if a country decides to leave the EAEU, it must inform its partners six months in advance. We haven't yet informed our partners that we intend to leave…
The referendum on this issue was widely discussed. Frankly, the adoption of the law already meant abandoning the idea of a referendum. Because if parliament hadn't passed this law back then... I'd like to remind you that this law was initiated by civil society. They collected signatures from Armenian citizens, which is constitutionally possible, and submitted the draft to parliament."
Putin did not agree:
"Adopting a law to begin the process of joining another economic organization effectively means declaring our withdrawal from ours, because membership in both is incompatible. That's the problem. Well, let's discuss all this calmly now."
Pashinyan has once again decided to drag his feet on the referendum:
“At the moment, this time is not ripe; we don’t need this now.”
Putin was not satisfied with this:
"I agree that the people should always have a choice. So make it, and let's close the matter. That's all."
The dispute continued without the presence of journalists.
English version :: Read in English: Pashinyan played the fool. Putin: Your exchange rate threatens to be reset!