Shoigu: Russia will not finance Armenian European integration

Russia "is not ready and will not finance Armenian European integration," and "every step in this direction has objective consequences," Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with members of the Presidium of the Scientific Expert Council of the Russian Security Council.

According to Sergei Shoigu, in the 90s, Russia saved Armenia from economic and energy collapse, and over the ten years of membership in the EAEU, its economy has almost tripled. At the same time, the current authorities have taken a course to break ties with Russia and strengthen cooperation with the West. There is a desire of Yerevan to expand cooperation with NATO and a frankly consumer attitude to the mechanisms of regional integration, primarily the EAEU and the CSTO, he said.

According to the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, an unfriendly line and “double standards” are manifested in relation to Russian business operating in Armenia. “What is happening to enterprises and entire industries in which Russia has invested billions of dollars can hardly be called anything other than a ‘raider seizure’,” he said. Arguments that have been put forward, such as the fact that Armenia loses its ability to integrate into international railway networks if Russia continues to manage Armenian railways, Sergei Shoigu called “outright ridiculous.”.

The meeting was attended by First Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliyev, Rector of MGIMO of the Russian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Torkunov, General Director of the RIAC Ivan Timofeev, Deputy Scientific Director of the Higher School of Economics Andrei Kokoshin, First Deputy General Director of ITAR-TASS Pavel Konovalchik and other participants.

The main topic of the meeting was “an inventory of Russia’s foreign policy resources in Transcaucasia in the current geopolitical configuration”.

Elena Chernenko