Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk has ruled out the possibility of restrictive measures against Armenia being adopted at the upcoming EAEU summit.
The Eurasian Economic Summit involving leaders of Eurasian Economic Union member states will take place in Astana on May 28.
“There is no discussion about changing the treaty. To amend the treaty, consensus is required, and Armenia, as we know, is not planning to leave the EAEU. They understand very well both the scale of the benefits and the volume of trade with other EAEU member states, which has reached such levels largely thanks to the preferential regimes operating for Armenia,” the Russian deputy prime minister said, according to Sputnik Armenia.
He added that this concerns zero customs tariffs, harmonized standards and technical regulations. Overchuk noted that the union’s markets are currently open and goods move freely between member states.
“Therefore, of course, Armenians clearly understand the advantages provided by participation in the Eurasian Economic Union and do not want to leave. There are political forces in the republic that have declared rapprochement with and membership in the European Union as their goal. Everyone understands that this is incompatible. This is a new situation and it must be assessed,” the Russian deputy prime minister stated.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Armenia receives gas-related privileges at Russia’s expense, and that this should be viewed as assistance.
“A privilege always comes at someone’s expense. In other words, the privilege Armenians receive is always at someone’s expense — it does not fall from the sky. It comes at the expense of the Russian Federation. This is truly our contribution to Armenia’s development. It is a brotherly country, has been and will remain a brotherly country. But it comes at our expense, and things should be called by their proper names: this is our assistance to Armenia,” the Kremlin representative stressed.
Peskov added that when Europeans are sold gas for $500-700, nobody helps them at their own expense.
“The Americans help Europeans precisely at the Europeans’ expense — for large sums of money,” he said.
Earlier, the newspaper Kommersant, citing a letter from Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev, reported that Russia was considering suspending or canceling the agreement on gas, petroleum product and diamond supplies to Armenia. At the same time, Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure stated that Yerevan had not received any notification from Moscow regarding a possible termination of the agreement on supplies of natural gas, petroleum products and rough diamonds.
