Armenian leader travels to Russia despite tensions and promises economic bloc cooperation
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whose country’s relations with Russia grew tense this year, says that when Armenia takes the rotating chairmanship of a Moscow-dominated economic alliance he will try to suppress politics obstructing regional integration
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whose country's relations with Russia grew tense this year, said Monday that when Armenia takes the rotating chairmanship of a Moscow-dominated economic alliance he will try to suppress politics obstructing regional integration.
Armenia is to become the chairman country of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2024. The bloc, established in 2014, includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan along with Russia and Armenia and encourages the free movement of goods and services.
Pashinyan in the past year has offended Russia by refusing to allow a Moscow-led security alliance to hold exercises in Armenia and by declining to attend an alliance summit.
Russia also was angered when Armenia joined the Treaty of Rome, which established the International Criminal Court that has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes for deportation of children during the war with Ukraine.
However, Pashinyan attended a meeting of the union's Supreme Council in St. Petersburg on Monday.
The union “and its economic principles should not correlate with political ambitions,” Pashinyan said at the meeting. Armenia is “trying to suppress all attempts to politicize Eurasian integration.”
Armenia is highly dependent on Russian trade and hosts a Russian military base, but relations deteriorated in the past year as a Russian peacekeeping force failed to unblock the road leading from Armenia to the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan took full control of the region in a lightning offensive in September.