“At the May summit, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union adopted a statement calling on Armenia’s leadership to hold a referendum and decide whether they want to go to the European Union or remain in the Eurasian Economic Union. In my opinion, this is a completely justified request. The norms of one organization are incompatible with the norms of the other organization. This has been said many times,” Lavrov said, Armenpress reports.
He addressed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that a referendum can be discussed when the application to join the European Union is submitted, there is a response to it, and a roadmap for that membership is developed.
Lavrov claimed that this does not speak of particularly great confidence in Armenian voters and the Armenian people.
“The honest choice should be shown: what are you choosing between—the accession to the European Union and the life you live today, when over the past three years trade turnover has exceeded $6 billion and in one year even reached $12 billion, and the country has developed thanks to the Eurasian Economic Union,” Lavrov said.
Asked how relations and ties with Armenia could be prevented from being “destroyed,” Lavrov insisted that Russia has done everything on its part.
“Everything has been done on our part. This concerns all the advantages Armenia has thanks to its participation in the Eurasian Economic Union, and all the advantages it receives by purchasing energy resources from us at three to four times lower prices than in the European Union. We have regular contacts between the deputy prime ministers. Any issue of interest to the Armenian side can be discussed, including the situation concerning the South Caucasus Railway company, which is under the concession management of Russian Railways. And we are surprised to hear how these issues, if they have already arisen, are immediately brought into the public sphere instead of being discussed with the partner,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.
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