Russia's Duma Speaker: Pashinyan Committed to EU Accession, Hiding Costs

MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. It seems Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is committed to bring his country into the European Union and is determined to see that through, speaker of Russia’s State Duma, or lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin said.

Pashinyan, in Volodin’s opinion, is not telling his people what the country’s withdrawal from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) could entail.

TASS has summed up Volodin’s key statements.

Pashinyan’s actions

Pashinyan seems to have made a personal commitment to bring Armenia into the European Union and is taking steps to make that happen: "In the meantime, he is trying to shift all the accession costs onto the EAEU and Russia."

Pashinyan is keeping quiet about potential consequences of the country’s withdrawal from the EAEU: "[Pashinyan] isn’t being open with the population about what moving to the EU will mean. He is not telling the people about the costs of withdrawing from the EAEU."

The Armenian prime minister doesn’t care about the future of his people and the country’s statehood. His hope is that accession to the European Union will help him hold on to power.

Armenia’s future in the EU

Armenia will receive no privileges or assistance from the European Union if it opts to join it. The European Union will do to it what it did to Ukraine: "It turned out that Ukrainian agricultural products, in fact, were kept off the European market as they imposed tough and disadvantageous tariff quotas. This same fate awaits Armenia."

"Household gas prices will jump up nearly four-fold; transborder money transfers to Armenia from Russia, currently amounting to nearly $4 billion a year (2/3 of all transfers), will shrink dramatically; migration advantages for those entering Russia will be canceled and employment will be possible only under work permits; imports of Armenian flowers, berries, fruit, vegetables (including pepper), fish, alcoholic drinks and mineral water will be suspended."